


Brighter

by Moshimma



Category: Video Blogging RPF, markiplier - Fandom
Genre: Angst, Attempt at Humor, Eventual Romance, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gay Panic, Highschool AU, Kissing, M/M, Math, Not Beta Read, Slow Burn, Slow Romance, Underage Drinking, Unrequited Crush, Unrequited Love, We Die Like Men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-18
Updated: 2021-01-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:56:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 20,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27609320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moshimma/pseuds/Moshimma
Summary: Ethan had always looked up to the incredible Senior, Mark Fischbach. The guy had everything, popularity, a ‘good bod’, passing grades, an amazing girlfriend, and- best of all- he wasn’t a douchebag to people.Basically a walking inspiration to everyone. And for Ethan, it was his high school crush.
Relationships: Mark Fischbach/Amy Nelson, Mark Fischbach/Ethan Nestor
Comments: 23
Kudos: 112





	1. It Happens All the Time

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so, I basically wanted a high school au where there wasn’t like a weird twist or any other au in it. I haven’t read any good ones for this ship so I took it upon myself to do it. Right off the bat I do wanna say there will be some tension but like come on, they’re gonna smooch eventually.
> 
> Also, no homophobia or anything, this is fictional we don’t need the fallacies of the real world. Assume everyone is pansexual or whatever, maybe just label-less.

“Ethan, you’re staring again.”

He snapped out of his dizziness, looking to the person next to him.

”No I’m not.”

He threw the locker, closing it through the impact before turning around. The girl behind him began running, trying to keep up with him.

"If I didn’t tell you to stop then, you’d probably still be drooling over him."  
"Mika, just shut up."  
"Oh, sure, It's _me_ who has to shut up, _not the dumbass who’s pining for the senior_."

Ethan looked around to see if anyone was hearing them. Thankfully, everyone seemed preoccupied in their own lockers.

He then turned to Mika once again, "Someone could have heard that!"  
“Well, someone could have caught you staring!”  
"I was _not_ staring at him."

She scoffed, pulling her bag slightly higher, "Okay, then, what were you doing?"  
"I was... looking... in that general...direction?"  
"That was spoken with less confidence than your biology presentation."  
"Okay, fair enough, just leave me alone."  
"I would love to, but your mom pays me a generous amount to be your best friend, so I'm afraid I don't have a choice but to berate you."

Ethan smiled, but refused to continue the conversation. Instead, he began walking a little faster, knowing that would annoy Mika. His paces got gradually longer, until he was basically power walking through the hall, like a mere fool. She was very confused at first, but then caught on quickly. At first, considering simply letting him go, which would cause him to evntually run into a wall and then cringe about it for a week, but she ultimately ran up to him once again.

"By the way, did you do that thing the counselor told you about?"  
"I really don't wanna join any clubs. I mean, I'm already a sophomore, I should've gotten a hobby a while ago if I actually wanted to be appealing for colleges."  
"But if you don't, then you're definitely going to end up being rejected."

Ethan let out a long sigh, "I hate it when you're right."

She punched his arm, "Make sure you join one before it's too late! You don't wanna end up accidentally ending up in a bad one just because everyone runs out of space."  
"I might be unlucky, but I'm not unlucky enough for _that_ to happen to me."  
"Ethan, today's the deadline. Drama and all the sports clubs are already filled. Don't procrastinate."  
"Yeah, yeah, just let me be."

They turned around the hallway and saw the door to Mika's class.

She gave him a 'peace' sign before silently walking towards the door.

"Hey, Mika, are you still gonna give me a ride?"  
"Take the bus, my mom has my car!"  
" _Ugh,_ thanks anyway."

She enterred the classroom and closed the door behind her, leaving Ethan alone in the hallway. He continued walking towards the gymnasium, a little relaxed. He rarely had trouble with gym, even after the injury.

A year before, Ethan was basically a gymnastics prodigy. But one time, because of _one mistake,_ he injured his ACL. He basically gave up on gymnastics. Wasn't entirely possible for most people to have a carreer after that.

Before he realized it, he was walking into the gym already, watching all the mats scattered on the floor. He waved at the coach near the corner, and made his way into the locker rooms.

He changed quickly, different form most of his classmates who had to do the full class and didn't have a terrible injury as an excuse, which made them less enthusiastic about changing. _Perks of having my dreams crushed,_ he thought to himself.

"Hey, _backflip dude!"_

Ethan felt his muscles contract when hearing that nickname. He turned and saw one of the Seniors changing near him.

" _MorningTyler_ "

He felt a harsh slap to his back, which made him regret taking his shirt off so quickly.

"How're you today, Ethan?"  
"Same old, same old."  
'It's gymnastics day..."

Ethan looked up to him and gave him a sarcastic smile, "Yeah, I noticed."  
"So..."  
"I'll help you out, don't worry."

Tyler nodded, keeping his expression calm. He moved closer to the sophomore, _"Do I still have to hold up my end of the bargain or..."_

Ethan felt like his throat closed in on itself, _"NO! D-dude, forget about that!"  
"I mean, I have no ethical problems with it, you wanted to know more about Mark and I don't really care-"  
"Just drop this entire subject and forget I brought it up."_

Tyler nodded and got away from him, "Cool, I'll see you out in the court then."

~~~~~~~~~~

Ethan sighed as he walked into the administration room, sitting on the chairs in front of the desk. He brushed his hair back and took out his phone to browse through it lightly. He sighed at the state it was in. The cracks through the screen were almost impossible to ignore at this point. There were too many to count, but three of them stood out. Two on the main screen and one on the protector, which was arguably the worse, because it made a shadow when moving the phone. He knew that it was basically one hit away from just ceasing to function.

He looked up at the door to the guidance counselor, waiting to be called in by the secretary in the main desk. A notification popped into his home screen:

" **Mika: have u been staring at the senior much :p** "

He shook his head and opened it.

 **E: i hate u  
** **M: lmao same  
** **E: havent seen him all day, thank god  
M: yeah right, u probs held ur breath hoping to see him whenever u turned around  
E: i hate u**

He heard the door to the office open, and turned his screen off. Like time slowed down, he saw the figure leave through the doorway. His heart got tied up in a knot and his throat dried up quickly.

"Thanks Mr. B, I'll be sure to hit the math books later today. See ya tomorrow!"  
"Sure, Mark. Call in the next student, could ya?"

Ethan's eyes widened as he saw the senior close the door and turn to face him. He knew it'd be impossible to ever be near him, so looking at him was somehow enough for Ethan sometimes. He couldn't help but gasp with every step, hating himself for being this dramatic over some guy. He wasn't the second coming of Jesus or anything, he was just a senior.

But a really good-looking senior.

Ethan felt his heart skip a beat as Mark got close.

"Hey, are you next?"

He shook his head and looked up at him, _"Huh?"  
_ "Are you going to the counselor's office?"  
"Oh, yeah."

Mark smiled, "Well, you can go in now."  
"Th-thanks..."  
"No problem dude, good luck with that."

Ethan nodded, biting back a shamefully-big smile that was forming on his face. He put his bag back on himself and stood up, walking slowly towards the office. He turned around secretly, watching as the Senior took out his own phone.

"Amy! I got a spot on the team!"

That seemed to snap Ethan out of it.

_Right. His girlfriend._

"Yeah! I'm so excited too!"

He turned around before he eavesdropped anything else. Didn't really felt like intruding on his crush and his girlfriend.

Ethan enterred the office, closing the door on his way inside.

"Well, hello Mr. Nestor, did you take my advice and join an extracurricular yet?"

Ethan plopped on the chair, looking in front of him at Mr. Bernard, the guidance counselor.

"About that..."  
"Please tell me you didn't avoid what I instructed you to do and now want to join a club when there are barely any spots."

Ethan grinned, nodding, "You're really good at your job, Mr. B."  
"For the last time, Ethan, I am a counselor, not a psychic."  
"Of course, but you have to admit that you're surprisingly good at reading my mind."

Mr. Bernard sighed and opened a cabinet under his desk, "Let me check what I can do."

The sophomore let out a sharp exhale and leaned back on the chair, "I know I should've signed up sooner for anything, but I really didn't think I was going to change my mind."  
"Well, what made you changed my mind?"  
"Well, I haven't. But I might, so I wanna make sure I do _something_ just in case it fails."

The teacher shook his while taking out a stack of papers. He began combing through them, "Now that I think about it, there is _one_ spot for the Mathletics Team-"  
"No! No math! You've seen my grades."  
"You said you wanted to try, right?"

Ethan scoffed, "I wanted to try joining a club, not to publically embarass myself doing math."

Mr. Bernard rolled his eyes and found the sign up sheet, pushing it to the other end of the table.

Ethan looked down to it in disgust, "Why would anyone do math voluntarily?"  
"Well, if you would give it a shot, you might find out."

Ethan saw a few names scribbled in. He knew that only 6 people were allowed to compete at Regionals, but up to 8 people could actually sign up to join the club. So far, there were 4 names scribbled in.

He didn't recognize the first one.

"Who the hell is 'Seán McLoughlin'?"  
"Transfer student, you'd probably like him, he's-"  
"Whoever he is, I have no respect for him. Who would name thir kid 'Seán'? Plus, who studies math willingly?"

Mr. Bernard glared at Ethan, who had seemingly forgotten that the guidance counselor was a former engineer.  
And that his diploma was hanging literally two feet behind him.  
And that it was encased in gold, drawing even more attention to it.  
 _Okay, maybe he really didn't forget._

Ethan looked down at the second name.

"Kathryn Knutsen? I am definitely not signing up now!"  
"You know her?"  
" _Know her?_ She's my MORTAL ENEMY!"

Mr. Bernard let out a sigh, "Would you care to explain?"  
"We used to be friends in first grade, but then I realized she liked Digimon!"  
"What?"

Ethan nodded, "EXACTLY! I was so ashamed of it. How can anyone like Pokémon's awful copy?"

The guidance counselor rubbed his temples, almost entirely giving up.

Ethan read even further.

"Amy Nelson is in the Mathletics team?!"  
"What do you have against Miss Nelson? She's lovely."

"Yeah. She's amazing." Ethan said, bitterly.

But the last one.

It was the game changer.

"Mark Fischbach!"  
"Yeah, he just decided to sign up; He's pretty good at math, so I encouraged him to sign up."  
 _"Mark Fischbach is in the Mathletics team?"_

Mr. Bernard nodded, "So, I'll take it you prefer 'nothing' over 'math'?"

Ethan reached to the edge of the desk, where he saw a pen. Without thinking twice, he wrote his name down.

The guidance counselor had a twisted expression, but decided not to question the boy's actions any further.

"Do you need anything else?" the man asked.  
"Nope, thanks, Mr. B."

Ethan stood up harshly and began walking towards the door. He placed his palm on the knob and turned it. His head was already begin him to go back and scratch his name out, but he felt like it was already too late.

He waved back at the guidance counselor and walked out.

_Guess it's time to study math._


	2. Never say Forever

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I said I was gonna update when I felt like it, I meant it. I felt like making a second chapter literally hours after the first one.
> 
> Other updates won't come this quickly lmao

"I'm sorry, why are you asking me about the quadratic formula?"

Ethan sighed, biting on his lower lip, "I'm just confused _why_ it's negative-positive!"

Mika bit down on her carrot and glared at him, "Who are you and what did you do to my only friend?"  
"Just, answer the question, Mika!"  
"I don't fucking know how the quadratic formula works, okay?"

Ethan sighed, putting his pencil down, "Fuck."  
"What are you doing?"

He closed the notebook harshly and grabbed something off of Mika's plate, "Nothing, forget about it. I'm just stupid."  
"Dude, if you're gonna eat my food and make me spend time with you, I deserve an explanation."  
"I joined the Mathletes."

The girl laughed a little too hard, which would make Ethan anxious any other time, "You know, you _are_ funny _some_ times."  
"I'm not kidding."

She nodded sarcastically, "Okay..."

Ethan was about say something when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Backflip Dude!"

Ethan groaned, "Tyler, that was _one time_ please just-"

The older guy ignored him and sat down on their table, grabbing one of Mika's carrots, "What's up, dude?"

Mika looked around in confusion, "Hello? Do I know you?"

Ethan scoffed, "I'm just a little tired from studying math."  
"Why are you studying math? Thought you said you hated it."  
"I joined the Mathletes."

Tyler laughed loudly, "You're hilarious, backflip dude."  
"Why won't either of you believe that I joined the Mathletes?"

Mika pretended not to be upset at both of them eating her food, "Ethan, math is like _the_ thing you hate. _That_ and spelling."  
"Leave me and dyslexia alone."

Tyler shrugged, "I mean, I just don't see you as a Mathlete."  
"What do Mathletes even look like?"

Tyler began looking around, half-jokingly trying to find anyone who looked even remotely nerdy. Ethan and Mika exchanged a nervous glance, hoping he wasn't actually going to call on someone.

"There! That guy!" Ethan turned around to see the direction he pointed at.

Near the entrance of the cafeteria, stood a skinny, average-height, pale boy.

Tyler didn't even have the decency to pretend he wasn't directly pointing at him. The boy looked at their table with confusion, not sure of what was happening. Tyler raised his hand and began waving,   
"Hey! You!"

Ethan and Mika both turned around and tried to hide, imagining Tyler wasn't even there.

The boy near the entrance began walking near them.

Ethan glared at the boy next to him, "Tyler, what are you doing?"  
"I'm showing you what a Mathlete looks like!"  
"Please just kill me instead."

The guy Tyler called now was standing at the end of the table, confused as to why he was called.

Tyler looked at him, "Hey, I'm Tyler. I have a question, are you a nerd?"

Ethan groaned, turning to the newly arrived guy, "I'm so sorry, please ignore him."

Tyler rolled his eyes, "What's your name."

The boy gave them a half-smile, still uncertain, "Uh, hi. I'm Seán."

Tyler laughed at his accent, "You're British?"

Mika glared at him, "Dude, that's Irish."  
"Oh, sorry. Anyways, are you a nerd?"

Ethan was still too anxioous to react to anything, instead retreating to his own mind.

Seán nodded slowly, "Uhhh... maybe? What do you Americans think a nerd is?"  
"Um... you play video games or something? Maybe you like math?"

Ethan decided to look up again and finally speak again, "Seán, you don't have to answer anything, don't worry."

The Irish boy shrugged, " _Eh,_ it's fine. Got nothing better to do with my time anyway."

He looked at the empty seat next to Mika and sat down, "So, to answer your question: I do play video games, but I wouldn't call myself a nerd."

Tyler nodded, "Do you like Math, though?"  
"Oh fuck no. I did join the Mathletes, but only for the extra credits."

The older boy gently pushed Ethan, "See backflip dude, I told you he was a Mathlete!"  
"Tyler, please just stop speaking."

Seán looked around the table, "Oh! Carrots!" He reached out and grabbed one of Mika's carrots.

She glared at the three of them, "Why is everyone taking my food?"

Ethan took another bite of his carrot and turned to Seán, "You're Seán McLoughlin, right?"  
"Yea. How'd you know?"  
"Saw your name in the sign up sheet."  
"Oh, _you're in Mathletes?"_

Ethan scoffed, "Why does everyone sound surprised to hear that I'm a Mathlete now!"

Seán gave him a slight smirk, "I mean, you don't look like someone who's into Math."

Tyler took a bite out of his carrot and laughed, "That's what I said."

Seán sighed, "What're your names, sorry?"

Ethan rubbed the back of his head, "Oh, I'm Ethan, this is Tyler, and the girl you just stole carrots from is Mika."  
"Nice to meet ya."  
"Same."

Seán began biting down on the carrot, "Do you know anyone else in the team? Or anything about the team, in general."

Ethan looked at Tyler and Mika suspiciously.

_Shoot, if I say no, they'll know I'm lying. But if I say yes, then I'd have to say why I joined._

The younger boy gave Seán a half-smile, _"Maybe?"_

Tyler shook his head, "What?"

Ethan immediately panicked, throwing everything into his backpack and running away.

Seán furrowed his brows, "The fuck is up with him?"

Mika and Tyler looked at each other, not sure of what happened.

"Did I say something weird?" Seán continued.

Tyler looked down, thinking.

After a few seconds, he got it.

"Ohhhh!" he cried.

Mika raised her eyebrow, "Spill."  
"I heard that Fischbach skipped on football this year to join Math Club with his girl."  
"Ah. Of course, it was about _Mark_."

Seán smiled, "Who's Mark?"

Tyler took one last bite to the carrot, "It's this dude Ethan has been crushing for like a year."

Mika rolled her eyes, "It's not a crush, honestly. It's basically an obsession. Wouldn't be surprised if he has a shrine with his used tissues or something."

Seán's eyes widened, "Shite, it's that bad?"  
"Well, he joined the fucking Mathletes for him."  
"That's some dedication."

Tyler nodded, "Yeah. I mean, last year, he even asked me to give him info on Mark in exchange for gymanstic lessons."

Mika gasped, "He did WHAT?"  
"He never told you about that?"  
"He did nOT-"

Seán interrupted them, "Why did he think _you_ could give him info on the guy?"  
"We used to be best friends I guess. Maybe we still are. I don't know."  
"So he turned to talking to the fellas' best friend for tips. That's crazy."

Mika saw as Ethan ran out of the cafeteria's entrance, "When Mark and Amy started dating, he basically stopped talking for a whole month. His mom and I had to drag him out of bed at one point."

Seán bit down on the carrot harshly, "Jeez, I'm gonna have to deal with _that_ during Mathletes?"

Tyler shook his head, "Don't worry, he's shy around Mark. You'll barely even notice him."

Mika nodded, "Yeah. He has a crush, but don't worry he's not gonna annoy you about it or anything. If anything, feel free to annoy _him_ about it."  
"Yeah, we love doing that."  
"The way his face just turns red is hilarious."

Seán nodded, "Good to know. By the way, where did you get these carrots?"

He was about to grab another one when Mika's hands stopped him, "Leave my food alone!"  
"You literally have your box in the middle of the table!"

Mika rolled her eyes when she heard her phone vibrate in her bag. She opened it and took her phone out, readin the message out loud.

" **Ethan: mika, whats the order of operations?** "

Seán and Tyler laughed.

Mika shook her head, "Gotta go help him, bye."

She packed her thing and left.


	3. Right Through Me

"You're really taking this math thing seriously, huh?"

Ethan nodded slowly, taking a sip of his coffee. His hands were shaking slightly, and his hair was a tangled mess, "Tyler, you don't have a clue how seriously I'm taking this."

The senior patted his back, "Have you guys even had a team meeting or anything?"  
"We can do that?"  
"Well, how in the world are you guys gonna compete?"

The younger boy shrugged, "I didn't really think about that, honestly."

Tyler rolled his eyes, "Dude, all of your teammates are seniors. No matter how hard you try, they'll have that advantage. So, you gotta coordinate what each of you know."  
"The problem isn't organizing, it's just... talking... to them..."  
"You mean _Mark_."

Ethan shook his head, regretting his existence, "Just don't say his name."  
"If you don't get over it you're definitely not going to do well at Mathletes."

Ethan dragged his feet along the hallway, making an unpleasant sound against the linoleum floor. He sighed and nodded, but didn't say anything. Somehow, Tyler understood the sentiment and dropped the subject. They kept walking, Ethan trying to get to his class, Tyler silently thinking of a way to tell him that they passed his classroom a few steps ago. He could tell the boy was having more trouble than anticipated, retreating to the confines of his mind more than usual.

Then, Seán conveniently walked up to them, "Hey guys, what's up?"

Ethan shook his head, as if suddenly waking up, "Hi Seán, just walking to class."

Tyler made a gesture towards the Irish, something along the lines of _'Ethan sad, I got class, help him.'_

He nodded and moved to Ethan's left.

"Backflip dude, I got class, see ya."  
"Kay, see ya later."

Seán suddenly put his arm around Ethan and walked with him, "I was thinking about Math..."  
 _"Ew."  
_ "I'll ask the counselor for the phone numbers of everyone, and we can find a classroom to get together or something."

Ethan shook his head, "Don't you share a class with one of them? You _are_ a Senior."  
"Ethan, I don't know anyone in this school. How am I supposed to know what they look like? Well, except your crush."

The sophomore bit his lower lip, "Okay, true. Just let me know at what time we'll meet, and I'll make sure to show up."

Ethan waved Seán off and began pacing to his classroom quickly. His mind was already running away as he turned the corner, when he was left dead in his tracks by a figure walking near him.

Going the opposite direction was Mark. He felt exhausted just by looking at him, like there was too much _him_ to take all in at once. It was overwhelming, for sure, even after feeling like that for over a year. He didn't think that feeling was ever going to get old. The way the light seemed to hit him in the perfect angle every single time made him weary, like his legs couldn't carry him anymore. Ethan knew that Mark was just looking right through him, but he felt golden.

It was only for a second, but it was still noteworthy. And then he was gone, off to whatever class _he_ had. Ethan forced himself not to look back and walked inside his own classroom, sitting down near the windows.

~~~~~~~~~~

Ethan was about to walk out through the gates when he felt his phone vibrate. He reached into his pocket, reading a message:

" **UNKOWN: Hey. Its Seán, we can get together in class 108"**

Ethan nodded and turned around. He started running towards the entrance of the school once again. He tried to ignore the anxious thoughts about seeing _him_ again, instead focusing on simply getting to the room. His heart thumped inside his chest against every step, and his hair bounced as he got closer to the classroom. He noticed that the door was already opened and imagined that Seán was waiting inside. He got close to the doorway, stopping to take a breath. He placed his hand on his own chest as too see if he was still alive. After a few seonds of hesitation, the boy turned to the classroom and walked in, surprised by what he saw. The classrooms in his high school weren't that big, but when the chairs were pushed to the back, it looked bigger. There were only six seats arranged in the middle, in a circle. Instead of just Seán, he saw three people in the seats.

"What are you guys doing here?"

Seán was there, but so was Mika and Tyler.

The tall senior was the first one to speak, "You looked like you needed help, and I wanted to make sure Seán wasn't the only one in our team to deal with your Mark problems."

Ethan walked up to the circle of chairs and dropped his backpack next to Mika, "Our team? You guys joined the Mathletes just for me?"

Mika scoffed, "Oh, God, no. I'd never do that to myself, even for extra Math credits. Tyler did, though."

Tyler nodded, "Football can wait until we win Regionals, right? It's fine, I'm gonna have to study math for my Sports Administration degree anyway, so I need the practice."

The young boy felt lighter, like he wasn't carrying all his problems by himself anymore, "Dude, I could give you a hug but you'd probably break my torso with your muscles."  
"Is that a compliment?"

Seán patted Tyler's back, "It's a fact, mate."  
"Right."

Mika stood up and grabbed her back, "I just came to see your reaction. Gotta go with my mom to buy groceries. Don't have a panic attack when _he_ shows up."  
"Thanks."

They gave each other a side hug and she left the classroom. Ethan sat down where she was sitting, to Seán's right.

The Irish gave them a smile, "Now, I got a packet of topics from the guidance counselor, so we need to see what everyone knows and see what we all don't know."

He began tossing some papers around, filled with a list of math topics Ethan could barely even pronounce.

He bit his lower lip, trying to understand any of the topics, "What is an inequality? Am I supposed to see that next year or something?"

Tyler laughed, "Dude, that's pre-algebra."  
"Fuck. I'm seriously unprepared for this."

Seán eyed him up and down, "Haven't you been over a Math textbook for like a whole week?"  
"Bold of you to assume I remember anything besides the times tables."  
"It's that bad, huh?"

Ethan read further down the list, seeing as the topics' titles got longer and more complicated to understand, "What the fuck is a complex number?"

A voice suddenly spoke up behind him, "It's an equation made by two real numbers and an imaginary number."

The three guys turned around and saw a short girl standing by the doorway. She had glasses, baggy clothing, and long dark hair.

"Kathryn Knutsen," Ethan said, almost surprised, "my mortal enemy."  
"I can't believe you're still not over that. I like Pokémon too, okay!"  
"No fan of Digimon can enjoy Pokémon. It's simply not compatible."

Kathryn shook her head and walked closer to the circle. She grabbed her bag and tossed it under the desk next to Tyler's directly opposite to Ethan.

She looked around, "Hi, I'm Kathryn, second year as a Mathlete."

Seán waved politely, "I'm Seán. You're already the most experienced one in this room, then."

Tyler nodded, "Yeah. It's our first time. I'm Tyler, by the way."

The girl grabbed one of the sheets handed out by Seán and looked over it carefully, "Oh wow. The department stepped up the difficulty significantly."

Ethan scoffed, setting the paper down, _"That's perfect."_

"Did somebody say 'perfect'?" a voice called from the entrance.

Ethan didn't _need_ to turn to know who it was. She waved at everyone and began walking closer, "Sorry for coming late, I was finishing up this mug in the workshop."

Amy set her bag neatly next to Kathryn's. She sat down and looked around. She fixed her gaze onto Ethan, "Hey, have we met?"

Ethan shook his head, "N-no? I'm Ethan. Nice to meet you."

Seán smiled at her, "I'm Seán. I called everyone here today."

She nodded, "Good thing you did, we should start practicing as soon as possible. I'm Amy, and I guess Kathryn and I are the only ones who were here last year."

Kathryn looked at her, "Yup. We're Seniors now."  
"We're Seniors alright."

She finally looked at the person next to Kathryn.

"Oh. Hi Tyler."  
"Hey."

Ethan began looking between them. As did Kathryn, who voiced her thoughts, "You two know each other?"

Tyler nodded, "Yeah, of course."

 _That's odd. Is that odd? That feels odd._ Ethan thought.

A weird silence filled the room as Amy began viewing the topics. Ethan stared into Tyler's gaze, raising an eyebrow. Tyler's face stood still, looking at Ethan in a peculiar way. A silent acknowledgment took place, neither of them actually saying.

Then, the door opened one last time.

Everyone but Ethan turned around, looking at the person suddenly walking in. He felt his breath shorten quickly, like his lungs were tiny and insufficient.

_Okay, I'm not ready. I'm not ready._

The noises going around were deafened, the only thing he heard were the steps getting closer to the circle of chairs.

_I'm not ready._

Ethan quickly looked at the chairs left, realizing that the only one not taken was the one next to him.

_I'm not ready._

He vaguely noticed Amy smiling, Tyler waving, and Kathryn giving him a peace sign.

_I'm not ready._

He heard the steps now next to his seat.

_I'M NOT READY._

Still not looking back, he saw as a hand reached out to Seán, giving him a firm handshake.

_I'M NOT READY._

He felt like the room was on fire, but like the smoke was just not kicking in.

_I'M NOT READY._

Then, he felt a hand on his shoulder.

**_I'M NOT-_ **

"Hey, I'm Mark."

Ethan looked up to the person next to him. He saw a hand reaching out to grab his.

_He's not looking through me._

Ethan lifted his hand and put it in his, "H-hi... I'm Ethan."

He felt as the older shook firmly, "Nice to meet you Ethan."

Ethan's heart was now thumping loudly. He really didn't know anyone could ever feel like this. He didn't even know his small, developing, teenage brain could even produce these feelings. An overwhelming amount of bittersweet joy. He felt broken in the best way possible. He savoured every single moment he could feel, like he'd never feel like that again. And in a weird way, he knew that he'd never feel like that again.

Mark sat down next to Ethan and began talking. Ethan was too busy to even listen anymore.  
  
He was just happy. 


	4. Doesn't Work Out So Well

"Ethan, at least _try_ to listen to what's happening."

The boy shook his head at Seán's words.

"Sorry."  
"Don't apologize, just listen."

He stopped looking at Mark and actually tried to be involved in the conversation.

"...I think we review the basics this week and then we should _try_ to learn the Calculus stuff."

Tyler shrugged, "Or in Ethan's case, _learn_ the basics and _give up_ at the other things."

Everyone laughed, while Ethan looked down, a little ashamed.

His friend rolled his eyes, "Cheer up, backflip dude."

Amy's mouth went wide-open, "Wait, _he_ is backflip dude?!"

Ethan groaned, "No, I'm not- It was _one time!_ "

Mark looked at him, "I mean, I'd wear a badge like that with honor. You _are_ backflip dude."

The sophomore bit his lower lip, "From now on, _please_ , no one mention _that_. Or call me that."

Tyler gave him a smrik, "Except me?"  
"...Except Tyler."

Mark looked at the two of them, "Wait, why can _he_ call you that?"  
"Well... _he's Tyler._ "

Seán shook his head, "So, MATH!"

Kathryn took that cue and began talking, "To be clear, we need to see how everyone is doing. Amy and I have a better memory of everything, but we need to check what you four know."

Amy nodded, "I think I can find one of those quizzes that determines your 'Math' level or something."

Mark furrowed his brows, "So we take a quiz to see how well we'll do at the Regional Quiz?"

Both Amy and Kathryn suddenly did a weird noise, like he just offended them.

"You're thinking _'Math Olympics'._ This is 'Mathletics'." Kathryn began.  
"Yeah, Math Olympics are a quiz," the other girl explained, "but Mathletics is the one with the buzzer and teams, honey."

Ethan felt his chest tighten just slightly. Not enough for anyone else to recognize, but enough for him to want to run away.

_Honey. Ew._

Mark nodded, "Okay, whatever. Thing is, we gotta take this quiz, right?"

The girls nodded.

Seán spoke up, "Just as a foundation, what's the highest level you guys think you're at? I'm definitely good with PreCalc."

Tyler scratched his head, "I think I'm okay with PreCalc. Defnitely Trig."

"Yeah, me too," Kathryn said, "Maybe I know some formulas here and there for derivatives, but that's as far as I can go."

Amy made peace signs with both hands, "I think I'm good with Calculus and Geometry. Honestly, I think I've forgotten most of Algebra."

Mark nodded, "Yeah and I definitely know Algebra and Trigonometry. Don't know about Geometry, though. Too many shapes."

They turned to Ethan slowly, expecting an answer.

The sophomore slowly lowered himself deeper into his seat, his face a light shade of red, "What's the one from adding until dividing?"

Kathryn sighed, "That's arithmetic, Ethan."  
"Then... I guess I know arithmetic..."

Mark, Tyler, and Amy laughed. Ethan would have gotten mad if it wasn't slightly funny.

Tyler began gathering his things, "I guess that's good enough for today, right?"

Everyone began nodding whiel Ethan looked at the senior next to him, not paying attention to the surroundings once again.

Seán gave Tyler a look and the latter understood.

"Backflip dude, I'm giving you a ride home, let's go!" He moved to the other side of the circle and moved Ethan's chair, causing him to stop looking at Mark.

The sophomore was caught off guard, "What?"  
"You heard me, come on."

Ethan shook his head but gathered his thing regardless, "Okay..."

They walked towards the door before turning once again.

Tyler looked at everyone, "Bye Seán, Kathryn, Amy."

He looked at Mark and gave him a nod.

The senior simply glared at him.

Ethan simply waved them off and followed Tyler into the hall. It wasn't longe before he began aking questions, "What was that?"  
"What was _what?_ "  
"Where do I begin? You skipping on Football on your _Senior_ year, whatever the fuck that was with Amy, making me leave, also _what the fuck was that weird look Mark gave you?_ "

Tyler shrugged, "Stuff happens, don't question."  
"Okay?"  
"Also, do you actually want a ride?"

The younger boy nodded, "I wouldn't mind it."  
"Okay. Cool."

The rest of the walk was quiet. Weirdly enough, Ethan was still thinking of _him._

_He barely even talked to you, you're definitely overreacting._

Tyler's cars was one of those that you could tell was old but in good shape. Ethan didn't really know much about cars, but something about said "vintage".

Tyler didn't even wait for Ethan to get in, like he was in a rush to just leave the school.

The sophomore opened the passenger's door and got in carefully, "Do you even know where I live?"  
"I've given you a ride before, dude."  
"You have?"

The senior shook his head, "Sometimes, I feel like you forget I'm yor friend.:  
"Well, considering _how_ our friendship started... you know... I'd rather forget that whole year."  
"Everyone does dumb stuff when they're freshmen."

Ethan watched as the car started moving, "Well, did _you_ stalk your crush's best friend and go up to him in exchange for his information?"  
"... no?"  
"Then shut up."

He began looking out the window, trying to let his mind calm down. It was still reeling from actually having Mark Fischbach next to him for more than 2 seconds.

"Are you thinking about him?"

Ethan nodded, "Am I really that obvious?"  
"Yeah, but only if you know. I’m used to your shit and identifying it. Someone like Amy, or even Mark himself, they probably can't tell."  
"Then I don't have to worry about _that_ at least."

Tyler sighed and looked away from the road for a brief moment, "You want my advice?"

Ethan shifted in his seat, "Uhh... sure?"  
"Go through Amy. She's actually really... _nice_. You could get _closer_ or whatever to Mark and also get to know someone who is genuinely a good person."

The sophomore nodded quaintly, "I guess you're right. But also, it's kind of weird. I mean, her boyfriend is the _person I like_."  
 _"That's an understatement."_  
"Also, I'm not even sure what I want. I've always been okay with just existing in his general orbit."

Tyler rolled his eyes, "Then why did you resort to talking to me?"

Ethan sunk into his seat, _"I don't know..."_  
"Get you goals straight, backflip dude. I mean, what do you even see in the guy?"  
"He's just... perfect."

"Mark Fischbach is _not_ perfect," the senior replied.  
"How do either of us know what perfect is? _We_ aren't."  
"Don't bs me, dude, _that guy_ isn't perfect."

Ethan nodded, "You know what? Just let this go. Mark's just going to stay in the back of my head. The only thing I'm caring about now is Math."  
"I give you two days before you're drooling over him again. Also, _did you just say you only care about Math?"_  
"I don't know what I've become but I don't like it."

The car suddenly stopped and Ethan realized he was already in front of his home.

He got out quickly and waved, "See ya, Ty!"  
"Bye."

~~~~~~~~~~

Ethan gawked at his phone, "What?"

He reread the results, stunned.

"12 out of 300 correct."

Mika caressed his back friendly, "Sorry dude. You got a lot of work to do..."  
"I mean, I knew I was bad but I didn't know it was _this_ bad."

She reached out and grabbed his phone, looking at the actual test, "Ethan, did you try answering this?"  
"Math is hard!"  
"Yeah but half of these answer boxes are blank."

Ethan scoffed, looking around the courtyard, "Well, _halfof'em_ aren't!"  
"Did you even solve them on paper?"  
"I did try to do a lot of them mentally... _but yeah I might have simply guessedsomeofthelaterones..."_

Mika focused intensely, reading some of the questions, "Where's the place to see the detailed results?"  
" _Um..._ Lemme check..."

He grabbed his phone and scrolled down quickly, reading along.

The girl took a second to look at the state of his phone, "When are you gonna get a new screen for that thing? I feel like you're gonna cut yourself everytime you move your finger across it."  
"To do that I need money, and to get money I need a job. You know anyone who hires _mediocre_ teenage boys with barely-passing grades?"

She rolled her eyes, "Hey, don't be so harsh to yourself! You're _okay_ at best."  
"Why am I still friends with you?"  
"Who else is gonna make fun of you to make sure your ego doesn't implode?"

"Backflip dude!"

Mika nodded, "Oh. Right."

Tyler sat next to Ethan, making him move in the small bench, "How was the test?"  
 _"...wanna ask me something else?"_  
"That bad, huh?"

Ethan tapped on a button on the screen and passed it to Mika. She quickly glanced at it, "Hey! You got one on trigonometry correct!"  
"That was one of the ones I guessed."  
"Well, then, you're fucked."

Tyler reached over and grabbed the phone, immediately holding back a laughter that was visible by his expression.

Ethan sighed and grabbed the phone, quickly putting it in his pocket, "I made a huge mistake, didn't I?"

Mika shrugged, "I mean, you _clearly_ weren't thinking straight. But if I found out my crush suddenly joined a weird club and I had a chance of getting in, _who knows?"_   
"Yeah... but I still made a huge mistake."  
"Probably."

The bell rang and Ethan groaned, "Do you think everyone will realize if I simply don't go?"

Tyler stood up, "We are literally 6 people. And unlike you, we know how to count."

Ethan let out a groan, "That was funny so I'll let it slide."

He stood up and began walking away with Tyler. He waved at Mika before turning around and walking into the school. Tyler stayed quiet during the walk, and Ethan assumed he just wasn't in the mood to talk. The closer he got to the class the quicker his heartbeat got. He wondered if this is what it would feel like for the next months. Just anxiety building up every step until he finally got to see _him_ again.

Before he even realized, he was about to walk into the classroom. This time, he didn't have to build himself up to it, because he already had an understanding of what it looked like.

This time, Amy, Kathryn, and Seán were already there. Tyler walked in first, greeting everyone, while Ethan simply smiled. He looked over the seats. Everyone seemed to be in the same spots, and Ethan assumed that somehow, that was set in stone. No point in overthinking where he would seat this time, Mark was still going to be next to him no matter how much he didn't _not_ want it.

"I got the lowest score on Trig," Seán casually stated as Ethan and Tyler sat down.

"I got low on it," Kathryn said, "but, yeah, Calculus is _not_ my forte."

Tyler dropped his bag on the floor, "My highest was actually Geometry and my lowest was PreCalculus. Trig was somewhere in the middle."

Amy shivered in her seat slightly, "Trigonometry was second worst actually. Like I thought, I don't remember most of Algebra."

Ethan was looking down during all of this, hoping he wasn't even seen or mentioned. He felt like his phone was now ten times heavier in his jacket pocket, the screen of his tests results burned into his mind.

Tyler quickly realized where this was headed and tried to derail everything, "So, we review Trigonometry first?"

Ethan let out a long breath, silently thanking the older guy. They all nodded and began getting their textbooks out. Ethan looked to his right, grabbing his bag and opening it. After a few seconds of looking at his two notebooks and old packet of gum, he realized that he forgot his Math textbook. For the Mathletic meeting.

_I'm not even sure I've ever met someone nearly as dumb as me._

"Guys, I left my stuff at my locker I'll be right back."

Ethan quickly got off his seat and walked to the hallway before anyone could say anything else. He took his phone out by instinct and found a new message.

" **Mika: daily reminder to not think about Mark lol** "

He scoffed at it. He opened the app and started typing really fast to feign anger.

" **I am deeply distraht (sp?) by the absolute batshit comments you are saying. I do nOT like Mark Fischbach, and im certainly not anxious to see-** "

_Huh?_

His feet suddenly tried to balance him after the crash. They basically stayed glued to the ground, but he was already too tipped over for them to do anything. His lower back hit the floor first, which made him tense up suddenly. Then, his shoulders, hands, and head all simultaneously collided as a sharp pain shot through his body. His phone flew out, but Ethan couldn't see where it landed.

He looked above him, seeing Mark looking down in shock.

"I am so sorry! I didn't see you walking..." the senior said, trying to gets his thoughts in order.

Ethan shook his head, "What just happened?"  
"I just completely ran into you, sorry."

Ethan looked around, quickly realizing that his phone was a little behind him, facing downwards.

_Fuck. My phone._

Mark took the initiative and walked over to the phone, "Dude, I am so sorry, I just..."

He reached down and turned it around.

Suddenly, Ethan remembered _why_ he didn't see Mark in the first place.

_Fuck! My phone!_

Mark's mouth opened in awe as he stared down at it.

Ethan's mind suddenly sped up.

_Tell him it's about another Mark._

_No, wait, you wrote his last name._

_Tell him it's a joke._

_What kind of weird fucked up joke would that be?_

_Tell him you have no idea what he's talking about._

_No, that won't work._

_It's about another Mark Fischbach?_

_That's just dumb._

"Oh my God, Ethan..."

_TELL HIM THAT HE DOESN'T REALLY LIKE HIM, IT’s JUST THAT MIKA THINKS HE DOES._

_TELL HIM IT'S NOT REALLY THAT SERIOUS AND THAT YOU DIDN'T STALK HIS EX-BEST FRIEND FOR INFO ABOUT HIM._

_TELL HIM YOU DIDN'T CRY WHEN HE GOT TOGETHER WITH AMY._

_TELL HIM YOU DON'T ACTUALLY STARE AT HIM EVERY TIME YOU GO TO YOUR LOCKERS._

Ethan felt like he was going to fain as Mark slowly started to turn the phone, making it face him.

**_TELL HIM YOU DON'T ACTUALLY LIKE HIM. IT'S NOT REAL. IT'S NOT REAL. IT'S NOT REAL. IT'S NOT REAL. IT'S NOT REAL. IT'S NOT REAL._ **

**_NONE OF THIS IS REAL._ **

”...”


	5. Leaving the Block

"I am so sorry, dude!" the senior said.

Ethan shook his head,

"WHAT?"

He looked down at the phone, realising that the screen was basically shattered apart.

A long sigh of relief escaped his mouth, and he felt like his head could rest even for a second.

Mark, on the other, hand, held the broken phone with care, his heart basically audible from where Ethan was standing. His back was tensed and his knees were weak. It was weird for the sophomore to see him like that. Like _he_ felt. He took a second to just bask in the emotion of the moment.

Ethan gave him an awkward smile, "It's... _okay?"_

Mark gulped and nodded nervously, "I'm sorry, dude. I just literally didn't see you. I was just looking down at my phone and-"  
"It's fine. My phone was basically about to die anyway, and I doubt that the fall could mess my head more than it already is."  
"I'm still sorry, though."

Ethan reached over and grabbed the broken phone, "I mean, I didn't see _you_ walk into me anyway, so it's both of our faults?"  
"You didn't break my phone... it's not exactly equal."  
"So? You want me to break your phone? I got a mean kick, if you're incapable of self-defense."

Mark let out a laugh, which mad Ethan's heart tighten. The way his eyebrows tilted down towards the sides of his face, his mouth suddenly opening, his nose scrunching up slightly. He'd only seen that face twice.

And we don't talk about the first time.

"You know, what? I think I should just buy you another phone and we'll call it even. No need for mine to get trashed."

Ethan smiled, trying not to overthink, "You don't have to get me a new phone, it's fine. If anything, I probably need to get a job or something and buy one for myself."  
"No, no, I insist. Even if we did run _into each other_ , that means at least _partly_ my fault. So, I kinda have to pay?"  
"I'll... let you know?"

Mark slowly handed the broken phone and returned a smile, "Sure. I'd give you my number when you decide, but... I guess you can't do that?"  
"We have the team meetings... so..."

The Senior tilted his head forward, "Oh, right! You're in Mathletes! That's why I remember your name."

_...Aaaaand there it is. The universe's way of reminding you: He doesn't know you, creep._

"Yeah... I was on my way to get my textbook... I'll see you over there..."  
"Cool."

Ethan looked down, _"Yeah... cool..."  
_

He shook his head and turned around, mentally slapping himself for basically his entire existence. All while, Mark tried to brush off the worried expression on his face, starting to walk off in the opposite direction. He tried not to think about the interaction too hard, focusing on getting to the classroom and hoping he wasn’t _too_ mad about the phone. He looked like he was completely okay with it, relieved, even, but he didn’t know enough about the sophomore to accurately infer how he felt.

He saw the door to the classroom half-opened and sauntered in. He noted that everyone was seated in the same way and sat down next to Amy.

Seán, Tyler, and Kathryn were engulfed in a discussion about a hypotenuse or something, while his girlfriend merely listened in, not correcting any of them.

He leaned into her ear, _“Hey, what do you know about the Ethan kid?”  
”Um... not more than you, probably. I know he’s friends with Tyler and he did that backflip that one time, but other than that he just seems like he’s just... there...”  
”Is that all?”_

She raised her left eyebrow slightly, _“He’s also bad at math? Like, since I sent him the link, I have the results to his test. Which were probably the lowest score you can get without just leaving everything blank.”  
”What?”  
”Yeah he's probably embarrassed about that, I wouldn’t bring it up. Why do you ask?”_

He tilted his head slightly and looked around, _“I kinda... broke his phone?”_

”You did **what**?!” she shouted, a little louder than intended.

The three across from them looked up for a second. Amy and Mark silently looked away and pretended nothing happened. Seán and Kathryn returned to the problem quickly after that, but Tyler took another second to simply glare at them to figure out what was happening. It took him a while, but he rejoined his discussion.

Amy leaned into Mark, _“You did, what?”  
”It's not like I wanted to! I ran into him accidentally and he toppled over and now his phone won’t turn on.”_

She let out a crack of laughter, but managed to stifle it part-way through. Mark frowned at her, _“I don’t think he likes me very much.”  
”I don’t think I’d really like you if you broke my phone either.”  
"Yeah, but... I dunno I kind got a vibe."_

Amy nodded slowly, _"Like a 'I personally don't like you' or a 'you seem annoying' vibe?"  
"Honey, I said I got a vibe, not that I'm psychic."  
"Well, what if you offered him help?"_

He leaned in closer, _"I told him I would pay for his phone?"  
"Mark, no. I mean- yeah, you should probably do that- but... like... maybe offer him some math tips or something."  
"Oh. Yeah, that's probably a good idea?"_

Mark was about to comment further, when he suddenly heard the door open once again. He turned and saw Ethan walking in, an anxious expression on his face. Mark set his back straight on the chair and pulled away from Amy.

She smiled and looked at him, _"Dude, it's not suspicious if you're talking to your girlfriend. Calm down."_

He mentally scolded himself and nodded.

Ethan sat down and opened the book nervously. He didn't even think af a topic to go to, just turning the pages and landing on any topic that seemed noteworthy. His eyes darted around to the different bold headers of even more things he didn't understand. Meanwhile, Mark looked back and forth between the floor and him, trying to not seem so awkward.

Ethan stopped at page 316, where the was a large square with two lines bisecting in the middle. Ignoring the sounds coming from the other side of the circle, he looked at an array of numbers plotted along it, with a bunch of vocabulary words that could only be described as gibberish to him. He figured that the dyslexia and the lack of knowldge in anything was now really kicking in. In that exact second, sitting in a classroom with his teammates, he was ready to just give up entirely on the concept of even participating.

It was devastating.

Mark could sense something was wrong, as if Ethan's nervousness was moving around in the air. He took a deep breath in and opened his mouth.

Only for Ethan to suddenly speak up.

"Hey, Amy?"

Everyone stopped talking, turning to Ethan.

Tyler and Mark had the same puzzled expression in their face, glaring at Ethan.

The sophomore looked past Mark, where Amy was sitting.

She narrowed her eyes, "Uh, what's up?"

Ethan cleared his throat and silently hoped everyone wasn't _staring_ at him, "I think it's probably important for everyone to know... I'm the least _good_ one of our team."

Kathryn smiled, "You mean 'the worst'?"

"Yes! That," Ethan continued, "I'm definitely the least experienced in here, and I think... it would be fair if that someone _experienced_ could... _umm_.... help? Me?"

Mark slowly turned to Amy, who was slightly smiling.

"Okay?" she said.

Ethan let out an embarassingly long breath and smiled back, _"Oh. Thank God."_

She turned to Mark, "We should probably switch seats."  
"Yeah, of course."

Ethan sighed silently as he saw Mark leave the desk next to his. He took a second to glimpse at Tyler, who was giving Amy the side-eye.

She sat down next to Ethan and looked down at his textbook. Tyler and Kathryn continued discussing as Mark set his bag down and got closer to them.

Ethan began to talk, while Mark silently listened to the others.

And without either of them realizing it,

**They were thinking of each other.**


	6. A Little Bit of Space

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if there are any errors im sorry i dont beta anything and i listened to Lemon Demon while writing it so my two braincells were just wooing around

A week.

An entire fucking week passed since Ethan's phone was broken.

During that entire week, he had managed to learn the time tables fully and finally understood what a coordinate plane was. Amy was probably the best tutor he'd ever had, and she quickly realized that it was gonna take a while before he'd get to anyone else's level, but, for some reason, she felt determined to help him now.

Ethan scratched the left side of his chin and looked up at Amy, "Uh, is the slope three fourths?"

She leaned over the graph, "Uh, _'rise over run'_ , remember?"  
"Oh. Right."

In a weird way, Ethan could tell Tyler was sort of right about getting closer to Amy. He quickly found out that she wan't anything like the weird vision he had in his mind of her. She was geniunely nice and cared for him. Like she actually gave a shit about his education or something.

Which only made the guilt grow colder.

"Oh!" the boy exclaimed, not caring about the other people in the library that preffered the silence, "It's definitely four over three, then."  
"Now, _that_ is correct!"  
"Sweet!"

She circled some numbers in the notebook, "Now just write it in slope-intercept form, calculate the distance, and you'll have finished it."

Ethan scoffed and looked down, "Amy, I just really have to thank you for taking the time and actually helping me. Like, you've helped me more than most of teachers growing up."  
"Please, it's fine. I needed the review in Algebra anyway. We're helping each other."

She gave him a warm smile, which he returned.

_How do you think she'd feel if she knew you think about her boyfriend every other minute?"_

He shook his head slightly and went back to concentrating on the numbers. It was easier than thinking.

_You're only saying that because you can't stop thinking of him._

He multiplied something and actually managed to do it mentally. A small part of him felt proud, but he continued with the problem.

_You hear his voice ringing in your ears, right?_

Ethan began working faster, like he was getting used to the math problems.

_You can't stop hearing his stupid name in your head. Mark._

The sound of his pencil moving was the only thing he was hearing.

_Mark._

Nothing was wrong.

_Mark._

He was simply solving a math problem.

_Mark._

Just in the library. Nothing around except is friend who he is friends with not because of any ulterior motives.

_Mark._

Ethan could capture moments like that in his memory, just peace.

_Mark._

He was getting closer to finishing the exercise, his heart accelerating just slightly.

_Mark._

His teeth clenched, just because of math.

_Mark._

It's just because of math.

_Mark._

Right?

"Mark!" Amy exclaimed looking to her right.

Ethan almost dropped his pencil before catching his breath. He quickly glanced to the side. Mark was at the end of the table, wearing a varsity jacket _because of course_ and was gently looking over the sophomore's notebook.

"It's time, honey," he said.

_Honey. Directed at HER, it's anything but sweet._

"Oh," she said, her hands already reaching around to pack her stuff, "Ethan, Mark and I will go get some burgers, you want one when we come back?"

He nodded faintly, "Yeah, thanks. Just, make sure that they cook with peanut oil or anything, I'm allergic."

Mark snapped his fingers, "You got it."

Amy quickly got up and walked closer to Mark. They interlocked arms and began walking strolled away, slowly.

_Ugh._

He looked down at the problem and analyzed it one last time.

12\. He moved the pencil and wrote it, finally finishing it.

He sighed, beginning to pack his things when a pair of hasty steps returned.

Amy ran, leaning over the notebook. Her eyes quickly read the solution.

"Hey, good job!" she said, before running away again.

Ethan scoffed and threw everything into his bag.

_Amy's nice._

He threw the backpack over his shoulder and walked out into the hallway, navigating through the crowds. A familiar voice came from behind him, which made him look back.

Seán was running towards Ethan waving his hand, "Yo!"

Ethan smiled and let Seán catch up to him.

"How're the lessons with Amy?" he asked, looking down slightly.  
"Oh, you know. She's pretty cool."  
"Hell yeah, she is. You getting better?"

The sophomore half-smiled, "Yeah. I'm still not good enough to compete in something like _Mathletics_ , but I might actually get there now."  
"That's really good, kid. How're things in the... _Mark..._ department?"

He looked around sneakily before getting closer to Seán, _"Same as always."  
_

"And have you thought any more about what you actually want from him?" someone suddendly said.

Ethan jumped slightly before turning to his right. There, Tyler was leaning into him. He was also wearing one of those varsity jackets and Ethan figured it had something to do with sports he didn't care about.

"So, any progress, backflip dude?"

The sophomore shrugged, "Just leave me alone. I don't have to want anything."

Seán laughed, "Sure, keep telling yourself that."

_He's right._

Ethan fake-laughed and kept walking with them, getting to the classroom. They moved to their respective seats and set their stuff down.

Kathryn was already there before them. Her hair was neatly combed and she was furiously scribbling in a notebook.

"You good?" Tyler asked, peeping the sheet.

She nodded lazily, "Sure."  
"Somehow, that doesn't convince me?”  
"I have no idea how to get this stupid angle."

After hearing the word "angle", Ethan tuned them out. He saw Tyler lean over the paper and quietly examine the problem.

The younger teen sighed and took the textbook out. As the sound of the pages filled his head, he remembered, "Oh, guys, by the way, Mark and Amy went to get something to eat or whatever, they'll be back later."

Kathryn looked at him curiously, "Are they getting burgers?"  
"I think so..."

She smiled and took her phone out, beginning to type:

**K: I swear to god, you better get me a burger or I will resent you for at least 4 days.  
A: lmao, ill tell mark  
K: you better!!**

Amy laughed and put the phone down, "Mark, Kathryn wants a burger too."  
"Huh? Did you tell her we were getting some?"  
"No? I don't think I did."

Mark gripped the steering wheel, "You think Ethan did?"  
"Probably."  
"Should we get everyone a burger, then?"

She adjusted her sunglasses and looked out the window, "I was about to say that."  
"Okay. Do you want to get out or should I?"  
"It's hot, I'll stay inside."

He nodded and moved the car into the parking lot. The building had bright red walls and the mascot was sitting on the top proudly. It was a burger wearing a superhero mask, and a yellow spandex suit. the restaurant name was on top of it, so everyone could read it. "SUPERBURGER."

Mark parked the car near the entrance, being very careful. Amy saw as he unbuckled the belt, "Mark, don't forget the extra cheese."

He nodded and climbed out, closing the car door softly. He waved at the security officer near the main door before walking in, heading directly for the counter.

"Good afternoon, welcome to Superburger, I'm Sheila, how may I help you?" the teenager behind the cash register said.

"Hi," Mark answered, "I would like 6 Hammer Burgers, and extra cheese on two of them, please."  
"Sure thing, do you also need a side-kick of fries and soda for each?"  
"Uh... yes."

She smiled and began tapping on the tablet next to the cash register.

Mark leaned over and took a look at the back, where there was only one other employee, flipping patties. He wasn't carrying a peppy smile like the one at the cash register, but it seemed appropiate.

"Is there anything else you'd like to add? We have the limited Power Pies still available."

Mark shook his head, "No, that would be all."  
"Okay, that'll be 28.74$."

He nodded and began getting his money out when a thought popped up, "Oh, sorry, I forgot to ask. Do you cook with peanut oil? I have a... _friend_ who's allergic."

The smile on her face faded slightly, she turned around and yelled for the other employee, "Samuel! Do we use peanut oil?"  
"Yeah, for the fries!"

Mark sighed, "Then I'm afraid I might need to cancel."

Sheila cleared her throat, "That's okay, thank you for coming."  
"Yeah, see ya."

He turned around and shook his head, walking out. The heat made his annoyance a little more intense, which his face showed. Amy noted this as he got closer to the car.

She reached over the driver's seat and opened the door for him, "Honey? Are you okay?"

He groaned as he got in, "They cook with peanut oil!"

Amy let out a nervous laugh, "Oh no! How... dare... they?"  
"Ethan said he's allergic, remember?"  
"Oh, right."

He threw the door, shutting it harshly, "Do you know of any restaurants that cook without peanuts?"

She narrowed her eyes, "Mark, you're not about to make this into a _thng_ , right?"

He took his phone out and began researching, "A _thing?_ What are you talking about?"  
"When people don't like you, you suddenly start looking for anything to impress them."

Mark looked up from the phone and pointed at he, "So you agree, Ethan doesn't like me!"

She rolled her eyes, "That's not the point!"

He looked back down, "That's not a thing. I don't do that."  
"You joined the football team because Tyler didn't invite you to his birthday party in 2nd grade."  
"I felt really left out, okay?! And i knew he liked football-"

Amy took a deep breath in, "Again, not the point!"

Mark landed on a result, "Ah! Look, Burger Crossing doesn't use peanut oils due to the increase of allergies in the clientelle!"  
"Burger Crossing is on the other side of town, Mark! Look, if Ethan really is allergic, then he's had to skip out on a few meals because of it, I'm sure he's used to it."

He moved the gearshift and began turning the car around, "Then let's make sure this isn't one of those times."  
"Mark! Getting him a burger won't make him like you! He's probably not even hungry!"

Ethan's stomach roared, which thankfully wasn't heard over the increasing loudness of Kathryn and Tyler. They were both hunched over the sheet of paper, trying to figure anything out. He slightly regretted skipping lunch in favor of Math, but a little part of him was proud he can actually solve some things now. Just a little part, though.

"No, we can't find the tangent!" Kathryn argued, "We only have this side and the right angle, how are we going to find it?"  
"Well, clearly there has to be a solution!" Tyler said, grabbing her pencil, "I mean, we only have this side and this angle, but there has to be SOMETHING!"

"I still think there has to be some way to find the other angles in the smaller one, maybe if not by tangent, then by deduction?"  
"The angle is split in these three parts, and we need to use it as right angle, that's clear!"  
"Is it, though?"

Seán let out a soft sigh, "Stop arguing! Kathryn, where are the instructions for this?"

She reached into her backpack and pulled out a thick textbook. After setting it on Tyler's desk, she moved the pages until landing on the one with the exercise.

"Of course it's a word problem!" Tyler shouted.

Seán leaned closer, reading the instructions carefully.

After a few seconds, he noticed something, "Hey! Look! It says the Side AD is the same distance as AE!"

Kathryn's eyes widened in excitement. She grabbed the pencil from Tyler's hand and traced two lines in the trangles, signalicing congruency.

They all turned to the paper and leaned back, thinking.

Seán nodded slowly, his eyebrows furrowed, Tyler kept his gaze completely fixed on it, and Kathryn was nodding patiently.

It took Tyler almost a full minute, the tension building up until he said, "That doesn't change anything!"

The other two sighed and looked down, defeated.

Tyler whimpered and let out a frustrated scream.

Meanwhile, Ethan focused on just putting his numbers into a formula.

Kathryn clenched her teeth, "Come on! What can we solve now that we know these two sides are the same?"

Seán tilted his head, "I guess maybe if we knew the angle next to this one we could figure out the other angle as well, since they have congruent sides?"  
"Okay, how do we figure out the angle?"  
"Hell if I know."

Tyler refused to look down at the problem, leaning back on the chair, "I'm hungry!"

Ethan finally heard something he understood, "Same."

Seán reached over and grabbed the sheet of paper, "Kathryn, can you tell Mark and Amy to bring everyone something?"

She was looking down to her phone, "Already on it."

**K: hey tyler and seán want burgers too  
A: yeah, we imagined. We went all the way to burger crossing, about to order.  
K: You went all the way there????  
A: mark's having a moment, i'm not gonna stop it  
K: lol fair enough. Tell them I don't want onions, I hate how much they add over there  
A: sure**

Amy pressed the lock button and glared at her boyfriend who was getting closer to the drive-through.

"If Ethan doesn't immeditely fall for you and confess in the spot when you give him the burgers," she said, "I'm punching you."

Mark rolled his eyes and turned to the window in the building, hoping an employee would go out.

He was promptly confused when Sheila, the girl from Superburger was behind it.

"Good afternoon, welcome to Burger Crossing, how can I help y'all?"

He shook his head, "Sheila?"

The employee laughed, "No, that's my twin sister. I'm Shayla, people confuse us all the time, it's fine."  
"Oh, sorry. Um, do you still have the Hankerin' Combo?"  
"Hell yeah we do! How many?"

"Six!" Amy shouted, "Extra cheese on one of them and no onions on another."

Sheyla nodded and began pressing the various options on the tablet, "Would y'all like to add the Moon Pie pie to any of those?"

Mark shook his head, but Amy stopped him, "Yes! To all of them!"  
"Alright, that'll be 31.74$. You'll get yall's food in a second."

Mark glared at Amy as he reached for the money and handed it to Sheyla.

He waited for the employee to turn around before closing the window and turning to Amy, "Why are we getting the Moon Pie pies?"  
"Hey, if you dragged all the way over here so you can impress a sophomore, I'm getting Moon Pie pies out of this."

He shook his head, "Wait, _all of those are yours?"_  
"You sound surprised. I see that you've never come here with me. Let me explain something," she detailed, "I. _Love._ Moon Pie pies."  
"Still, _six?_ That seems a little excessive."

"Not a little excessive, Mark," she said while rolling her eyes, "It is extremely excessive."

They stayed silent while waiting for the food, but Sheyla eventually came back, holding several bags. She began passing them, "Thank you coming to Burger Crossing, we'll see y'all next time!"

Mark grabbed the bags and handed them to Amy. They waved at her and drove away.

Not even two seconds after leaving, Amy opened the bag labeled as "Cheese" and reached in for the dessert. She grabbed the plastic box and teared it open, beginning to eat the Moon Pie pie.

Mark raised an eyebrow, "Can you at least save one for me?"  
"If you get to the school fast enough, there might still be one or two left. As long as I'm in this car, I'm eating a Moon Pie pie."  
"Jeez. At least save one for Ethan."

She shook her head, "Ethan'll be fine without a Moon Pie pie. I won't"

Ethan was in fact, not fine, with or without a Moon Pie pie. His ADHD was sadly not letting him concentrate on the problem in front of him, too distracted by the intense discussion on the other side of the circle.

"Okay so, this if these two sides are the same length," Seán was saying, "we have to assume that these two angles are also the same, right?"

Kathryn nodded slowly, "Yeah, that's how isosceles triangles work."  
"Well, if _these two_ are the same, and we have the angle of _this opposite one_ -"

Tyler gasped, "Wait! Then angle DAE plus x times two is equal to 180!"

Seán glared at him, "Dude! I was about to say that!"

Kathryn ignored the both of them and scribbled down, solving the equation, "These two angles are 75 each, then."

Tyler smiled, "And since _these_ two are alternate, they're congruent!"  
"Yes!"  
"Oh my God! Finally! Progress!"

Seán nodded, "We can find this other side using the tangent now, right?"

Kathryn passed him the pencil, "I think sine is better, but either should work."

Tyler grabbed a calculator from his bag and passed it to Seán. He began tapping away at it, while the other two waited anxiously.

"Okay!" the Irish teen exclaimed, "This side is 4 units long, this other one is 5."

The girl pointed at another line, "This one has to be 5 too."  
"Yeah! And if we have this side, we can get this other angle!"

Tyler let out a long breath, "I'm solving this angle, Kathryn find the opposite side, and Seán can find the adjacent."

The three of them grabbed calculators and began tapping away, finally quieting down.

Ethan took the moment to look at the progress he had made.

After he looked down he realized, the entire problem was solved.

He solved it.

Without even thinking too hard about it.

_I guess your brain does work when you're not thinking abour Mark, huh?_

"I got it!" the three seniors shouted at the same time, all looking at the results on the small calculator screens.

They took turns writing the answers, sharing the pencil.

Ethan looked up, seeing them.

"Now, all we need to do is find the stupid hypothenuse!" Seán exlclaimed, his accent adding a level of intensity unmatched by anyone else in the room.

They analyzed the problem one last time, looking through everything slowly. Ethan observed as how the excited smile slowly faded from their faces, turning into a more thoughtful one.

Tyler was the one to break the silence again, "H-how... do we find the hypothenuse?"

Kathryn tilted her head, "I... don't... know? What? It's like my brain is too tired to think about it?"

The last one of them simply shook his head, trying to think of anything.

They were so close, but something was missing.

With no other options left, they all looked up at Ethan, who got out of the chair to stretch.

Ethan slowly realized he was being stared at. Immediately getting flustered, a light red forming in his cheeks, "What's going on guys?"

Tyler scoffed, "Ethan do you know something we don't?"  
"I doubt that."  
"Just, look at this..."

Ethan walked around the circle, getting close to them.

He leaned over Tyler's shoulder and looked at the messy sheet of paper.

All the procedure they had done was etched in multiple ways, probably none of them facing the same angle, but Ethan somehow had an okay understanding of it.

Seán pushed his hair back, "We just need the length of the hypothenuse. Nothing else."

The sophomore tried to remember the brief explanation in trigonometry terms he heard on a YouTube video somewhere, "The hypothalamus is the longest part of the triangle, right?"

Kathryn bit back a smile, " _Hypothenuse,_ yes."  
"Right, hypothenuse. Sorry."

He looked at the triangle and pictured it as something he was more familiar with. Instead of the complicated three-sided mess, he imagined just the singular diagonal line on a plane.

He shrugged, "Why not use the distance formula?"  
Seán looked back at him, "The what?"  
"The distance formula. You know? 'Square root of x2-x1 squared plus y2-y1 squared'?"

The seniors stayed silent, trying to recall anything like that.

Like usual, Tyler was the first one to recall. He moved the back of his hand and hit Seán with it, "Guys! It's the Pythagorean theorem!"

"Oh!" the other two said.

Tyler grabbed the calculator and inputted the values into it, finally solving the entire problem.

Ethan shook his head, "Wait, I helped?"

Tyler wrote down the number form the calculator and threw the pencil to the desk.

He stood up and turned to face Ethan. His arms went around the smaller teen as he lifted him, "Ethan! You actually know Math!"

Ethan tensed up immediately, getting surprised at how easily the senior lifted him. He instinctinly pinned his arms next to his torso, "I _what?"_

Tyler twirled around, not putting Ethan down, "You helped!"  
"I helped?"  
 _"You helped!_ "

The sophomore smiled, finally moving his arms around the senior. His arms winced at the harshness of the varsity jacket, not really expecting the softness, "I can't believe it!"

_You're imagining he's someone else wearing that jacket, right?_

His legs were still dangling, but it seemed weirdly appropiate.

The other two seniors in the room clapped semi-ironically, a mix between pride and also frustration at themselves.

And then, as he was being held by Tyler midair, the door opened.

"We got food!" Amy said, holding on tightly to the bags hanging from her hands.

The sophomore was put down by Tyler, who immediately ran to the other side of the room, grabbing one of the bags straight out of Amy's hands. She smiled warmly and began walking closer towards everyone, letting everyone have a bag. Mark followed behind her, eating a Moon Pie pie.

Ethan sat down on his seat and smiled at Amy, who handed him a bag. Weirdly enough, she didn't seat next to him. Instead, Mark seemed to take that place again, and Amy sat next to Kathryn.

"Hey," he said, smiling at Ethan, "We had to go all the way to Burger Crossing, apparently most fast food restaurants actually haven't gone peanut-free!"

_He... went... to the... other side... of the town... for you..._

"Oh, thanks," Ethan said, keeping his tone calm, not giving away too much emotion.

_You really want to kiss him right now._

Mark's expression cracked a little, like he was disappointed slightly.

_He probably thinks you're annoying. Who wouldn't._

Amy suddenly punched Mark's arm, seemingly for no reason.

"Told ya," she said.

Mark nodded in defeat.

Ethan wondered if he missed something.

_Probably something about how annoying it was for them to drive all the way there for a dumb annoying kid._

Tyler took a bite out of the burger, "Amy, Ethan actually helped _us_ with a problem. You trained him well."

They all laughed and began eating.

_He'll never actually like you, will he?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey y'all, I hope you're enjoying the story so far. ive got a pretty clear picture moving forward with what to do, but I do got stuff to deal with irl so expect chapter to be inconsistent.
> 
> Thanks for sticking by tho, I appreciate it.


	7. Ten Thousand Fires

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Full disclosure, this chapter is kind of filler but I needed to set up the next few chapters.

Ethan sat down harshly, startling Mika, who was sitting calmly on the bench.

"Jesus!" she exclaimed, her burrito almost falling from her grasp.

"Guess what?!" he said.  
"Whatever your news is, it can't be more important than my lunch, so you better watch it, kid."

He rolled his eyes, taking out a notebook, "I actually did the Geometry work by myself!"

She tilted her head, "What?"  
"I didn't wanna write the research paper for History, so I procrastinated by doing the Geometry homework!"

Mika grabbed the notebook and opened it, flipping pages, "Who procrastinates homework by... doing homework...?"

He shrugged, "I have no idea, but hey, it worked!"

She vaguely checked his procedure and nodded slowly, being a little impressed, but mostly suspicious that someone was pulling a prank on her. Ethan didn't care if she fully believed him, because he was honestly okay with his work.

_Wish you could be okay with being around him by now._

"Wow," she muttered, "I take it things with the Math tutor are going well?"

He smiled, "Yeah, I mean, turns out having someone who actually gives a shit about your education helps.  
 _"Ah, who coulda guessed that?"  
"I know, right?"_

Truth is, Ethan was really having a good time learning with Amy. She had somehow helped him understand the topics that seemed impossible. Most importantly, however, was the fact that he was actually on level now. He remembered many times that teachers would tell him he would never actually catch up, he was too far behind. And yet, when he sat down and wanted to learn, he managed to do it. 

"By the way are you guys ready for the competition?" she asked, taking a bite out of her food.  
"Oh, God, no. Today we were supposed to have a mock-competition."  
"What's that?"

He leaned his back on the bench, "Well, Kathryn got a team of another school to agree to have a sort of friendly-match."  
"Ah, and you'll see how unprepared you are."  
"Exactly. Now I just gotta wait for Seánto call me when they get here."

Mika laughed, raising one of her eyebrows, "Ethan, isn't your phone broken?"

He laughed with her for a second, then realized, "Wait, you're right! What time is it?!"

She looked down to her wrist, where a watch was streapped around, "...3:55, I think."  
"Fuck! I'm late!"

He grabbed his notebook harshly and threw it into his bag, "Bye!"  
"See ya!"

Ethan ran quickly through the halls, which were mostly empty save for the ocassional kid here and there organizing their locker. Before he could even process it, he enterred the classroom, which was different from how he'd seen it every single time.

On the left side, there were 6 kids he'd never seen before. They were wearing matching purple-varsity jackets that he assumed was their team uniform. They were seated in a straight line across from his own teammates who all looked slightly nervous. Seán was the farthest, on the first chair, followed by Tyler, Kathryn, and then Amy.

And of course, the only empty chair was the one next to Mark.

Two teachers were near the entrance, discussing something. One of them, Mr. Chestnut, Ethan recognized, it was his sleezy Algebra teacher from the previous year

He moved closer to the row of his own team, sitting next to Mark. Seán tried calling his attention, but he was being too quiet for Ethan to hear him. There was also the added nervousness of being next to Mark that made everything a little more silent.

After a few more tries, Seán decided to call for Amy instead, _"Hey, Amy!"_

She turned to him skeptically, _"What's up?"  
"Ask Ethan why he's late."_

She smiled and looked back, _"Ethan!"_

He snapped out of the Mark trance and shook his head, _"Huh?"  
"Seán asks why you're late."  
_

 _"I didn't get his call,"_ he slowly turned towards Mark, who was overhearing them, _"My phone kinda can't register them for some reason."_

Mark looked down in shame, while Amy laughed silently. She nodded and turned around, explaining the situation to Seán.

One of the teachers suddenly clapped harshly, causing everyone to turn to her.

"Good afternoon to everyone, I am Mrs. Stromanoff. I coach the team for Breanne High. I understand that this is a friendly, care-free competition for the purposes of practicing, correct?"

All of the students from both rows nodded.

Mr. Chestnut who was standing next to her nodded slowly, "So... I got these buzzers. Mrs. Stromanoff over here will read a word problem, and when you think you know the answer just buzz in. If you're correct, ya get a point, if not, oops. The other team gets a turn."

He set the buzzers down sloppily, basically throwing them to the students.

"Alright," Mrs. Stromanoff said, "Let's start."

~~~~~~~~~~

"We just got our asses kicked," Tyler muttered, grabbing his seat and lifting it above his back.

Seán brushed his hair back, "We're _so_ not competing in Regionals. Like, at all."

Ethan dragged his seat to the other pile, "I actually managed to somehow _think_ I was actually going to be good at math. Like, we are nowhere even close to whatever the hell just happened."

"In all fairness," Amy noted, "They have a coach and uniforms and everything. All we have is a team meeting twice a week and a sophomore."

Tyler scoffed, "Hey, Ethan's not-"  
"No, no, she's right," Ethan nodded.

_You are the weak link._

Amy leaned back on one of the chairs next to the wall, "We need to meet every day. We are still two weeks before the competition. I mean, maybe I can't get Ethan to learn every single thing in that time, but we can make sure every single one of us has one area covered."

Kathryn snapped her finger and pointed to her, "Yeah. Amy gets Calculus, Seán gets PreCalc, Mark gets Trig, Tyler and I get Geometry, and Ethan just reviews the shit out of Algebra."

They all nodded, except for Tyler, "Actually I think I'm good with bouncing around. Maybe I can just help out here and there."  
"Okay, that works."

_Everyone else is saying something... you need to contribute in some way._

"Oh, and if we need to practice," Ethan commented, "Maybe I can ask Mika if she gets some problems and test us during the meetings."  
"Okay, yeah, that works, too."

Mark grabbed his bag on the floor and put it on his back, "We can also ask Mr. Peanut."

They all turned to him slowly, confused. Mark smiled nonchalantly, like he hadn't said anything even close to absurd.

Amy got closer to him, "Honey... Mister _what?"_  
"Oh you know, the Algebra teacher."  
"Mark, that's Mr. Chestnut."

He tilted his head, "No, I'm pretty sure his last name is Peanut."  
"No... Mark... the Algebra teacher isn't named Mr. Peanut?”

Mark laughed, _"Yeah... sure..."_

Amy shook her head and turned to everyone else, "Whatever his name is,-" _  
_ _"Mr. Peanut..."_  
"...we can definitely ask him to be the coach. I mean, we techincally need an adult to even compete."

"About that," Seán asked, "How are we even doing this?"

She looked down at her phone, "Oh, well first we have regionals. I think it's on Mislavink High for our district."  
Kathryn nodded, "Yeah. It's on Mislavink like last year. We leave after school one day before the actual competition."  
"We also like to go to a hotel so we have a final practice and make sure we're all in the same place. We share the rooms in pairs, of course."

_Pairs? Huh._

"That way no one has a last-minute emergency and they can't go," Amy explained.  
Tyler raised his brows, "Wait, so we're gonna stay at a hotel and everything?"  
"Yeah. That's why need an adult. Don't worry about transportation or anything, Kathryn has a bus."

Seán smiled, confused, "A bus?"

Kathryn shrugged, "Yeah. I have a bus."  
"Why do you have a bus?"  
"Why not?"

Mark put his arm around his girlfriend, "Well guys, we just have to go home and begin studying at this point."

Ethan swallowed the weird feeling coming up his throat, "Yeah... bye guys..."

He grabbed his bag and walked away quickly, a red tinge on his cheeks from seeing Mark. He didn't even wait for anyone else to say their goodbyes, a more important thought going up his brain.

_You're gonna share a room with him, doesn't matter what you have to do._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the next one might be kind of like a three-in-one where I show:  
> The team meeting right before leaving for regionals  
> The bus ride  
> The night at the hotel.
> 
> If I actually manage to do that, the next chapter will be EXTREMELY long, so might take me a while lmao


	8. You Know Me Better Than I Do

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This whole chapter was just me experimenting, okay?
> 
> I know that even though this is told in third person, the story very much revolves around Ethan and how he’s seeing things, so I thought I could shake things.
> 
> Also, I really tried doing the three-in-one chapter... but it was definitely too long.

Tyler dragged the long grey duffel bag over his shoulder, the entire situation not entirely sinked in yet. Sure, you could spend days preparing and practicing, you could pack a bag, you could even tell your parents about it and tell everyone about it, but the nerves and excitement were yet to come. He remembered to pack the essentials, double-checking before arriving at the crowded school, loud enough to dampen most people's thoughts. But not Tyler's. He was used to overlooking the noice. Something about him liked the fact that, even in such a packed hallway, his height made him look over all of it. It was the appeal of just standing out by standing up that most people wouldn't understand.

People like Ethan, who he was coincidentally looking for. 

Two days before, the team had somehow convinced the school to give them the entire day for just practicing Math. Turns out when two of the most prominent football stars leave the team and the prospects of said team suddenly go down, and then said athletes ask for support in the _educational sector_ of all places, a school can help.

There's also the fact that the funding will go up if they win, but Tyler prefers to believe in the former.

"Backflip dude!" he yelled at the sophomore, next to his locker.

The biggest hurdle of the team was still Ethan, who could (somewhat) carry them through Algebra, but really couldn't help with anything else. Everyone had silently agreed that if they lost and it was _because_ of Ethan, no one would genuienly blame him.

Or let him blame himself.

Ethan sighed, making sure his voice was unenthusiastic, "Good morning to you too, Tyler."  
"Why the long face?"  
"Well, the fact that we're having a full day of Math is enough to make anyone depressed."

"You're being dramatic," He laughed.  
"Doesn't mean I'm not right."

Tyler rolled his eyes and looked arund him, checking he had everything ready, "Ethan, where's your bag?"  
"Oh. OH!"

The sophomore looked around himself frantically. Tyler tried to keep a laughter, but he could only do _so_ much. After just a few seconds of Ethan panicking internally, Tyler cackled heavily.

"You're a piece of shit, you know that?" the younger teen muttered, smiling slightly. His face was paler than usual and he looked down, trying to think of what to do.

The senior decided to act like he was mature for a moment, smiling at Ethan, "We'll figure it out later, okay? We'll aks if anyone in the team drove here and we'll get your duffel from your house. Calm down. Or, if we can't do that, I got a shirt that _maybe... could fit you... if you were several inches taller?"_

That, somehow, made Ethan laugh a little, which encouraged Tyler to keep it rolling, "...or you could just _go nude_ for the entire competition. You'd definitely distract _someone_ on the opposite team."  
"Yeah, I'm sure the judges would let a tiny ugly dude just walk around naked for a day."  
"Hey! You forgot anxious."

Ethan rolled his eyes, "Right. Tiny, ugly, anxious dude."  
"That has to be the first line in your Tinder bio."

The sophomore's demeanor seemed to be less heavy, so Tyler felt confident enough to continue.

Ethan closed the locker and began walking with the older teen, slightly less uneasy, "Do you think I'm handling the... _you know who_... stuff well?"

"You talkin' bout Mark?" a voice behind them spoke up.

Ethan yipped, turning around quickly.

Mika inserted herself between them, quite literally making herself the center, "Look, if you still jump at the sound of his name, you're probably fucking up in _something_."

Tyler scoffed, "You've only been there a couple of times. You have no idea how he actually behaves next to the guy."  
"Sure, but I've know him longer than you have. I know how he is with these types of things."  
"In the past week, he's blushed a total of two times when Mark corrected him on something. That's like... 5000% less times than average."

Mika raised an eyebrow, looking towards Ethan, "You didn't tell him about what you told me, did you?"  
"Mika! I said that was just a thought, not an actual _anything_!"

Tyler moved closer to them, trying not to hit someone as they walked, "What's she talking about, dude?"  
"Well-"

"No, I'm telling him," Mika cut him off, "When he found out you guys were sharing rooms, he told me he was going to do _anything_ to make sure they shared rooms."

The senior gasped, "What?"

Ethan bit his lower lip nervously, looking away from both of them, "I swear to God, Mika. I'm never talking to you again."

She pushed her long hair behind her shoulders, "If you actually find anyone else willing to be your friend, you can't respect them. Their standards are way too low."  
"Aren't _you_ my friend?”  
"I have low standards, that's obvious."

Tyler glared at Ethan, trying to get the conversation back in order, "Wait, so, you're gonna try to arrange things so you share rooms with _Mark_?"  
"No! I _wanted_ to do something, _butitwasjustforlikeasecond.._."  
"What in the world were you even gonna do?"

The younger teen shrugged, "I don't know. I never figured it out, honestly."

Mika patted his head, "I'm so proud of you for giving up."  
"Don't you have a class to go to or something?"  
"I am _not_ in the mood for history this early in the morning. I'm just gonna skip and hang with you guys."

Tyler suddenly realized something, "Oh. Shoot. Forgot my textbook. I'm just gonna go back and pick it up, see you guys there."

Ethan looked at him, "I'll go with you."  
"Okay, sure."

The sophomore looked at Mika and gave her a toothy smile, "We're meeting at the auditorium, I'll see you ther okay?"

She shrugged, "Kay."

The two guys turned around and left her, walking through the semi-crowded hallway. She quickly turned around a corner sharply and walked closer to the auditorium, not paying attention to whoever passed next to her. The somewhat familiar faces all blended together after being in the school for so long, especially for someone who never really cared for school spirit like her. In her own world, it was just herself walking though an empty hallway, everything else was white noise.

Before realizing, she was opening the doors to the auditorium, taking in its polished scent. In front of her, a row of padded seats lead up to the mighty stage. The curtains were opened, and a few of the spotlights were turned on, pointed to where the meeting was about to take place. She paced to the front row, sitting down on the first chair she saw.

"Aren't you supposed to be in class, Miss Midgett?" someone said next to her, causing her to flinch.

Next to her seat was Mr. Chestnut, whom she hadn't even noticed when walking.

He had a stonefaced expression and looked generally disinterested.

"Are you gonna tell Mrs. Houl that I'm skipping?"

He shrugged, "I'm gonna go smoke in the bathroom and blame it on a random kid, you gonna tell the principal?"  
"No?  
"Then I don't care."

The teacher left the seat and walked away, leaving Mika in only slight confusion.

He stopped halfway through, turning back to her, "By the way, the planning book for this whole thing is on my seat. Don't touch it, wouldn't want anyone messing with the logistics."

She held back a smile, "Logistics? You mean like the sleeping arrangements for tonight?"  
"Yeah, and other shit too."  
"Huh. Don't worry, I will protect this."

Mr. Chestnut nodded and walked away. She didn't look back as she heard the door open and close, assuming that he had a left in a hurry. The reflection of the light was making the seats only slightly visible. She tried looking around and finding something to focus on other than the book that very clearly could be Ethan's way of getting it with Mark. She quickly got bored and phone rang, almost like someone could tell she was looking for something to do.

**Seán: Guys the theater is locked**

It was from the team's group chat, which Mika had been added to only because she was the only one who could contact Ethan, who had yet to get a new phone.

**M: lol no  
S: I'm turning the knob and it's not opening at all  
M: did you try turning it the other way?  
S: What? Of course I did  
M: u sure?**

Right after that, she heard the door behind her open once again, an angry Seán cursing while entering.

"So, did you try turning it the other way?" she said, turning around.

He rolled his eyes, "You could've just said you were inside."  
"Wouldn't have been as fun."  
"Glad to know someone likes my misery."

She smirked, "Have you seen me with Ethan? Did you think the only misery I enjoy is his?"  
"So you're an equal opportunity sadist. That's great."

He walked closer, taking a good look at everything inside. His bag made an annoying noise as it was dragged along the stairs, "Why did we choose the theater again?"  
"Something about classrooms being occupied and the gym being smelly, I don't know."  
"Wait, aren't you supposed to be in class? You're not _actually_ on the team."

She pretended to be offended, gasping dramatically, "I did _not_ spend over a week of my life preparing a bunch of math problems for this type of treatment."  
"Oh shut up. You didn't spend over a month studying all of this," he took his textbook and showed it off.  
"Well, duh! I'm not a nerd!"

The door opened one more time, Amy walking in, holding a heavy bag over her shoulders.

Seán laughed, "Speaking of nerds, here's Amy!"

She smiled slightly, "Well, this nerd might be the reason we win at Regionals."  
"Yeah, that's fair."

Her bag was set down on the second row, behind Mika.

The sophomore turned around and decided to talk to her, "Hey, where's Mark?"  
" _Uh..._ I don't know? We don't spend every second of our day with each other, you know?"  
"Of course, I just meant you usually come in together to meetings."

The senior smiled awkwardly, "Well, yeah, but I'm not gonna stand by the entrance and just _wait_ for him to show up."  
"He hasn't come in yet?"  
"Not as far as I know."

Seán leaned back, looking at them, "Wait, have you tried calling him?"  
"No? Why would I?"  
"Maybe he overslept or something?"

Amy reached to her jean pocket and shrugged slightly, "I'll call him but I doubt there's a problem."

The sound of the door opening made everyone look back, seeing Kathryn carrying a small backpack. She gave an awkward peace sign to everyone and wandered to the seat behind Seán's, "Where's everyone else."

"Ethan went with Tyler to his locker," Mika explained, "Amy's calling Mark 'cus Seán thinks he's missing."  
"I did _not_ say he was missing!" the Irish teen remarked.

Mika began going back and forth with him but Amy blocked it out as she concentrated on the sound of her cellphone. She wasn't worrying much, but she felt something crawling up her neck slightly. She could see Seán open his mouth in shock before tossing another insult back at the sophomore, but the words weren't registering in brain. Kathryn noticed the stoic expression on Amy's face and quickly mouthed _"Are you okay?"_

 _"He's not answering,"_ she mouthed back.

Kathryn looked towards the door, silently instructing her to go outside and call him again. She nodded and got up, not saying anything before treading out. Her right hand stayed firm on the cellphone, pushing against her ear, while her left hand reached to the doorknob and turned it. The door made a slight creaking sound as she pushed the door and stepped out into the empty hallway.

Her phone kept repeating the same sound, which wasn't comforting her.

"Amy!" she heard Ethan call out as he walked closer to her, Tyler walking next to him.

"Hey," she replied, "I'm calling Mark, he hasn't shown up yet."  
"Oh. That's weird."  
"A little."

Tyler gave the sophomore a weird look Amy couldn't recognize. Like he was teasing, but he hadn't said anything. Now that she was thinking about it, sometimes she thought it was weird how Mika and Seán and Tyler all seemed to bother hi-

"Amy! Thank God!"

She shook her head and adjusted the cellphone, "Mark, where are you?"

The sound of the highway was present in the background of the other line, "Uh, I kinda missed the bus and didn't have gas."

She let out a disappointed sigh, "Please tell me you are _not_ walking to school through the highway with your duffel bag."

"Amy, I am _not_ walking to school through the highway with my duffel bag," he explained, "I am walking to school _by_ the highway with my duffel bag."  
"I am going to run you over."

He laughed nervously, "It's only fifteen miles, _my body can handle it._ "  
"I'm gonna ask if anyone brought their car, where are you?"  
"Uh... I'm close to that McDonald's in front of the Chinese place?"

She rubbed her forehead, "Why didn't you call me sooner?"  
"Because _I can take it!"_ He said semi-furiously, "...also I didn't have signal until a few seconds ago."  
"I _told you_ to get Verizon!"

She walked into the theater once again, "Guys, Mark missed the bus and decided to walk _like a complete dumbass._ "

"Hey!" he yelled from the other line.

She rolled her eyes and continued, "Did any of you bring your car? He's like 20 minutes away, in the McDonald's near the airport."

Seán raised his hand, "I brought mine, planned to leave it on the school for the weekend."  
"Can you go pick him up?"  
"Yeah, sure."

She got closer to the phone, "Mark, Seán's going."

Tyler looked over to Ethan, who looked like he was being told something important by Mika.

"Backflip dude, Seán's going to get Mark. You should go."

Ethan shook his head and turned a shade of red, _"Wha- Wh- Why? Huh?"_  
"You left your bag, 'member?"  
 _"Oh... yeah... ha..."_

Kathryn looked at him, "You left your bag?"  
"Yeah... I'm... dumb..."

Seán smiled, "Well, Ethan, let's go!"

The sophomore stood up quietly, nodding slowly.

Amy sat down on her chair and talked to Mark once again, "Ethan's going too."  
"Ethan is _wha-_ "

She pressed the red button and set her phone down.

Seán and Ethan began walking away, waving goodbye to the team members. The Irish teen seemed to be holding down a giant laugh as he looked over at the other boy, knowing full well he was dying inside.

Once they were outside the theater, it took all of Seán's strength not to collapse in the floor laughing. He did laugh, but managed to keep it at a sane volume. Ethan noted this, glaring at him angrily.

"I'm sorry dude," he said in between laughs, "But you gotta admit this is fucking hilarious."  
"I didn't do any _thn_ to you why do you do _dis_?"

Seán kept laughing the whole way, the hallways echoing him as Ethan felt more and more anxious. Their steps echoed loudly, but not loud enough to make anyone inside the classrooms wonder if someone is outside.

"I gotta ask," the senior said after turning around a corner, "What was Mika talking to you about."  
" _Eh..._ nothing special. Just some _thn_ _bout_ a notebook..."  
"Oh. I thought it was about Mark. You had that _look_ on your face."

Ethan began walking closer, "What look?"  
"The _'I can't believe you're bringing him up'_ look."  
"I don't have that look!"

Seán rolled his eyes, "Sure, Ethan."

He stayed quiet the rest of the walk to the car, pouting in his mind. He decided to sit in the back seat, to avoid the older teen's antics. The car was a little small, but big enough for Ethan to sit horizontally on, putting his back to the left car door, on the driver's side.

"Hey! Get your shoes off the seat!" he cried from the driving seat, turning the car on.

Ethan gently pushed his shoes off his feet, leaving his socks on the right seat.

Seán pretended not to care as the car began leaving the school's parking lot.

Ethan closed his eyes, relaxing for a few seconds. Before he could even realize what was happening, he fell asleep on the car.

The driver noticed, deciding to let him rest for a while. He concentrated on getting the car to Mark as quickly as possible, trying to picture the route mentally. He's been in town for a short while, but he still isn't completely knowledged in all the streets and turns, so he felt a little nervous. He read one of the signs below a traffic light and began guiding himself a little. This wasn't the first time he was driving to the other side of town, thankfully.

About two weeks prior to that, he drove Tyler back home after a party.

_"Dude, just pay attention to th-e signs," Tyler said, hiccupping, "Get on the h-highway and you'll get there in no time."  
"Why couldn't you be the driver?"  
_

_'"Because y-you gotta learn how to drive!" The passenger slurred.  
_ _"I already know how to drive!"  
_ _"Well you hafta learn howto do i-it in this side too, not just across the r-river."_

 _Seán shook his head,"I literally don't need to drive over here, I live so far away from this place."  
_ _"Yeah but... what if one d-day I need a ride from ovah here?"  
"You can call a taxi."_

 _Tyler scoffed, "Taxis won't help a drunk teen! And I feel like drinking sometimes."  
_ _"Eh, why?"  
"You know... to forget?"_

_The Irish teen raised an eyebrow, "To forget what?"  
"You know, things... places... people?"  
"Oh. Well, did it work?"_

_He shook his head, trying to understand, "Did what work?"  
"Did the drinking work? Did you forget?"_

_Tyler tilted his head and started looking out the window, "Actually... no."  
_

He felt his hands press tighter on the wheel as he tried getting off the highway, seeing an exit up ahead. He turned it, driving into the road opening. He tried looking around for any visible signs that could indicate any sense of direction, but it seemed like most only gave direction for streets, not any _McDonald's._

Thankfully, you can spot the Golden Arches from anywhere.

Just a few miles away from them, he saw the restaurant.

"Ethan, wake up, we're near your hunk."

"Huh?" he said, moving slightly.

Ethan moved carelessly, stretching his arms and looking outside.

"I said we're near Mark."  
"Oh. Sorry, I kinda took a nap."  
"It's okay, just fix your hair or he'll never love you."

Ethan rolled his eyes, "You guys are the absolute worst."  
"Takes one to know one."

Seán moved the car into the parking lot, looking around for any Asian teen with an obnoxious letterman jacket.

It wasn't hard to find Mark, who was waving by the entrance, carrying a large bag of food.

The driver left the car right next to him, making sure he wouldn't go around and try getting on the passenger seat. Ethan, who was still leaning on the driver's side, didn't realize quickly enough. He heard the click of the door opening and immediately tried moving.

Unfortunately, he still wasn't fully awake, so when the door opened, he started falling down.

Mark, who didn't know what was happening, was shocked to see Ethan suddenly going down. He reacted quickly moving his body so Ethan didn't completely get all the way out of the car.

Seán bit his lips to can in a laughter, making sure Mark didn't see him.

"Holy shit, I'm sorry," Mark said, looking down at the sophomore.

"It-it's _s_ fine, probably shouldn't have been leaning on the d-door anyway."

Ethan looked up at the senior and tried to capture the view like an image, but he knew if he didn't move it would be creepy. He swiftly raised his back and moved away from him as quickly as his wimpy body left him.

The driver looked at them from the rearview mirror, trying to see their expressions. Mark was clearly uncomfortable, with his mouth tight-lipped, while Ethan was looking off, trying not to pay attention to his surroundings. They muttered something to each other, but he couldn't hear it from the front seat. Mark got inside and closed to door carefully, setting the bag between the two of them. Seán decided not to let them feel awkward for much longer, starting to move the car away from the driveway.

"Oh, dude, thanks for coming and picking me up."  
"Aw, yeah, no problem dude. We kinda had to anyway, Ethan forgot his bag."  
"Oh, really?"

Ethan nodded quickly, trying not to blush, "Yeah, I left it in my house."  
"So we're gonna pass by your house?"  
"Seán? Are we?"

The Irish teen nodded, "Yeah, of course, where is it, by the way?"  
"Just get over the river and I'll tell you."  
"Okay."

The car got on the road and moved away from the restaurant, Mark and Ethan not talking to each other. The next few minutes were silent as the driver looked around, recognizing some of the street names.

_"You said 'Paxtang Avenue', right?" he asked the teen in the passenger seat._   
_"Yeah, just ke-ep driving. Turn after you s-see the church, my house is close."_

_Seán nodded and kept driving straight, trying to see around the tall trees, blocking a lot of the streetlights. He gulped, looking at a big brick building to his right. He read something the lines of "presbyterian church" and knew he was heading the right way._

_"Okay, go right on the n-next turn," Tyler said._   
_"Got it."_

_His hands went around the steering wheel, moving the car with ease. The road became a lot smoother, like it had recently been renovated. Tyler kept quiet as they turned right, getting a slightly smaller street._

_"Turn right again in li-ke half a mile or so."_   
_"Okay..."_

_The driver felt a little more relaxed, getting close to the destination._

_"Seán, I'm sorry."_   
_"What?_   
_"I'm just... s-sorry for making y-ou drop me off and shit..."_

_He scoffed, "It's fine, dude. I prefer for me to give you a ride than for you to go home with some stranger."_   
_"Oh, n-no, I wouldn't have gone home with a stranger anyway."_   
_"Who would you have asked for help then?"_

_Tyler furrowed his brows as the car turned right again, into an even narrower street, "Maybe Mark or Amy, I don't know."_   
_"Yeah, what's your story with those two, by the way?"_   
_"M-my story?"_

_Seán moved slowly, trying to see if Tyler would tell him which house it was, "I mean, you kinda look at each other funnily. Like there's a story."_   
_"Th-there's no story. Just fr-iends not being frie-nds anymore."_   
_"Somehow I don't buy that."_

_Tyler waited for Seán to get closer to his house, "You won't tell Ethan?"_   
_"Ethan? What does Ethan have to do with this?"_   
_"Jus-st, promise me you won't tell him."_

_The driver nodded, "Sure."_   
_"Mark and Amy kinda s-screwed me ov-ver with something."_   
_"With what? And how does Ethan factor into this?"_

_He pointed to a house with a white gate, "That h-house. M-Mark and I had this agreemnt with a thnnng, but then o-ut of nowhere he did-n't do it."_

_Seán pulled up on the driveway and parked the car, but didn't unlock the car, "What was the thing?"_   
_"Well... w-we agreed that if either of us got to d-date Amy, it would be me."_   
_"What?"_

_Tyler shrugged, trying to keep his emotions in check, "I liked her s-since 4th grade. Mark didn't even think sh-e was cute until last year. And he b-basically swooped in and just..."_   
_"...took her?"_   
_"That sounds wrong... but yeah?"_

_The Irish teen gave him a sympathetic smile, "Well, there are more people than Amy in the world."_   
_"D-dude, it's Amy. And I'm me. L-ike, I know you don't get it, b-but she's just..."you know?_   
_"Tyler, she's just a girl. You're just as... you know... as her._

_He turned around and faced Seán, "What d-does that mean?"_   
_"Like... y-you're cute? I don't know?"_   
_"Y-yeah, but, like would y-ou make a move on me if we weren't friends?"_

_Seán shrugged, "I mean, you're kinda my type. So maybe? If I knew you for longer?"_

_Tyler smiled and decided to lean closer, testing the waters. The other boy didn't seem to notice, waiting for an answer._

_The passenger inched further, staring, "So, like... you w-would make a move on me."_

_Seán tilted his head, "Only if you started it. Maybe. I don't think I understand where this conversation is going."_   
_"I d-don't either, if I'm being honest."_

_He closed his eyes and let his body do what it wanted, closing the distance between them. Seán's eyes widened, completely confused. He felt his entire neck tense up at the taste of cheap beer on Tyler's mouth, and his fingertips seemed to set themselves on fire, desperately to grab onto something to ground himself._

_It felt like an hour passed in those two seconds before Seán reacted, leaning away. Tyler's torso fell down, a sigh escaping his mouth._

_"Tyler, you're drunk. And you're not into me. And I don’t think I’m into you. And you're clearly not over Amy."_

_The older teen rolled his eyes and began lifting himself, "Yeah, o-okay. You're r-right, I guess."_   
_"Of course I'm right."_   
_"This didn't make things w-weird between us, rright?"_

_Seán shook his head, "It's not weird for you, right?"_   
_"No. It's no-t for your eith-ther, right?"_

_..._

_..._

...

 _"S-Se_ án!"

He shook his head and looked back at Ethan who was poin to an exit near them, "Let's get my bag."  
"Right. Sorry, I was remembering something."

The car turned left and began going into a mostly empty street with a few trees by the sidewalk.

"Third house on the right, lime-green door."

Mark tilted his head, "You have a lime-green front door?"  
"Try having an artist for a parent. Sometimes they make weird decisions that takes them a while to reasses."  
"I mean... my mom is kinda into art."

Seán saw Ethan blush slightly, but Mark didn't seem to notice. He saw the sophomore's home and moved to it swiftly.

"Do you guys want a glass of water or something?" Ethan asked, reaching over to open the door.

The driver smirked, "Yeah, let's get off."

The younger teen pretended not to hear an innuendo and climbed out of the car, strolling quickly to the front door.

Seán unbuckled his seatbelt and waited for Mark to open his door. His eyes stayed glued to Ethan, who started looking for keys in his pockets.

"Hey, Seán, can I ask you something?" Mark suddenly brought up.

He looked back, "Yeah?"  
"Do you think I should give Ethan this right now or later?"

Mark reached into one of the bags and pulled out a box with a fancy cellphone design on top.

Seán furrowed his brows, "You bought him a fucking cellphone?"  
"Well, I broke his, and I think it's been long enough, I should've probably bought it even sooner."  
"Dude, that's fucking insane."

He shrugged, "But should I give it to him in his house or on school?"  
"You're going to give him a panic attack, better to do it in his bloody home."  
"Yeah, true."

Mark opened the car door and moved outside, pacing to Ethan.

Seán took a second to collect his thoughts and walked out, seeing as the sophomore opened the door.

"This can only go badly."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope everyone is liking the story so far. I’ve been trying my hardest to make time here and there but I can only do so much. 
> 
> Also I reached 18k words what???? That’s more than for whatever essay I’ve ever written for any class wtfff


	9. If I Could Sit You Down

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kinda like the last one, this is still going to have that weird bouncing POV that never focuses on one character for too long. Idk y’all I liked writing it so I’m going to keep doing it like that for this one and probably the next one too. Definitely not the entire fic tho.

Seán did not like the excitement on Mark's face when they were walking towards the front door. For all the teasing he did on Ethan, _and he teased A LOT,_ no one really knew what the deal was with Mark.

Well, no one but Tyler, who didn’t comment on it.

”Thankfully no one is home so just let me get my things and we'll be on our way,” the sophomore explained as he opened the door.

Mark had the box in the pockets of his jacket, his hand fiddled around it nervously, which Seán could tell.

Honestly? The Irish teen didn’t see the appeal to him. Not personality-wise, at least. Maybe Ethan just needed to get to know the guy for his crush to go away? Or maybe he’s just idolized him for so long that his brain will just jump around any red flag for Mark to be perfect.

Or maybe the guy really is perfect? Who knows?

They walked inside carefully, noting the extreme decorations scattered around the otherwise clean living room.

The walls were a bright shade of yellow, which bounced off the cyan carpet and the pink couch that was placed on the far left.

It was disgusting to see but his eyes were already locked into it.

”Oh wow,” Mark said, once Ethan ran further into the house.

Seán shook his head, ”I can’t believe someone would take time out of their day to even consider doing something like this.”  
”Doesn’t it kind of give us an idea of what Ethan is like, though?”  
”Huh?”

Mark shrugged, “Like, if his parents are like _this,_ he's either extremely into it or extremely against it.”  
”Look man, my respect for Ethan is smaller than him, but if he actually likes this then I might decide to just leave him here and you two can just walk home.”  
”For real?”

Seán opened his mouth only to be interrupted by Ethan, who came back into the room with his bag.

”Hey, Seán,” the younger teen shouted, holding his bag, “catch this!”

He threw the bag across the room but was thankfully caught in time. Seán staggered back, holding the duffel with care.

”What the fuck, dude?!”

Ethan smiled, “I’m getting the water and don’t wanna walk to the other side of the room.”

The Irish teen was about to comment further when Ethan left quickly, running away from them. He looked towards Mark to see if he had any sort of reaction but seemed to be focused on the box in his pockets.

He leaned closer to the jock, "Dude, take your hand out, you look like you're hiding a gun in there."  
"Oh. Right."

Mark's hands trembled out, making it obvious he had trouble staying still, "I'm just going to give it to him as soon as he comes back."  
"You really shouldn't do that."  
"Well, why not?"

Seán rolled his eyes, "Give him a few seconds, he _will_ freak out if you just hand it like that."  
"Nah, he'll be fine. He's always chill."  
"He's... _he's chill?"_ Seán stifled a laugh, "Are you sure you have even spoken to him?" 

Ethan's swift steps interrupted them, walking into the room with three heavy cups, "We should finish up quickly, I don't wanna make the others wait."

Mark's hands suddenly reached into his pockets, "Well, it'd be my fault anyway, I'm the one who missed the bus."  
"Yeah... but... I doubt they'd... blame _you_."

Seán closed tried his hardest to bite down the awkward smile forming on his face, not trying to give it away.

"Speaking about things I'm to blame for," Mark continued, "Do you remember a few weeks ago when we _ran into each other?"_  
 _"Well, how can I forget, I lostmyphone._ "

Seán saw how carefully Mark took the box out, not giving much thought to any theatricality to it like he was just "getting it over with".

Until, all of a sudden, the senior got on his knees and held the box out to present to Ethan, whose face was now scrunched up in confusion.

"I bought you a new phone, I'm sorry for breaking your last one!"

Ethan's eyes were wide-open, and his grip on the glasses suddenly weakened. Seán quickly noticed and decided to run to him, reaching for them and grabbing on before they fell. The sophomore's face turned paler, and his breaths sounded short and shaky. Seán set the cups down on a coffee table next to the main couch and handed the younger teen one of them, to try to help him calm down. Ethan hadn't processed any of these actions, rather just staring blankly at the other senior.

Seán tapped his shoulder, _"Ethan. Dude, snap out of it."_

He nodded obediently, trying to get his head in order.

"You... _got me a phone?"  
_ "Yeah..."

They stayed silent, which was almost unbearable to the Irish teen, who stood somewhat between them. His knees felt overexerted from carrying the tension in the room and- _as much as he wanted to laugh out loud at that moment-_ he could also agree that this was a very shocking moment.

His hands grabbed one of the cups and gulped it down as quickly as humanly possible, placing it near Ethan afterward, "You guys know what? You can discuss whatever the fuck is happening right now by yourselves, I am going to my car."

He looked around nervously and made his way to the door once again, opening it. "Oh, good luck," he said before leaving, maybe meaning it for the both of them.

As soon as he was sure he couldn't be heard, his hand wrapped around his phone and he dialed the number hurriedly.

The phone on the other line rang for about two full seconds before it was picked up.

"Seán? You guys close?"

"Tyler, for the love of God, you will _not_ believe what the fuck is happening right now."

The other teen sighed, "You're not getting here right now, aren't you?"  
"Mark bought Ethan a phone and gave it to him like an _engagement ring_ or something."  
 _"What?"_

Seán opened the door to the driver's seat and climbed inside, "Like, he bought... the guy... a phone. A new phone. He bought the guy a phone."  
" _Yeah, that sounds like Mark,_ but what did you say was the other thing?!"  
"He got on a knee and presented like he was asking the fella to marry him or something."

Tyler looked around the theater. He spotted Mika holding a notebook close to her chest and waved to her. She furrowed her brows after realizing he was calling her. He waved once more and she understood.

"I'm putting you on speaker, Mika's coming." The senior told him while waiting impatiently for the girl.

"What's going on?" She asked him.

"Well," Seán tried to say without screaming, "We're at Ethan's house. And... Mark bought him a new phone-"  
 _"Mark did WHAT?"_ the sophomore exclaimed.

"That's not the biggest part: Mark gave it to him by literally going down in one knee like he was proposing."

Seán tried to imagine her expression going from shocked to confused, her eyebrows shooting around, trying to settle on a single pose. All he heard was her stifling back words, trying to come up with anything.

Then, another voice was heard from behind them.

"Hey guys, is that Seán?"

Tyler's hand shook slightly as he turned around, seeing Amy walking closer to them.

She smiled inquisitively, not repeating the question.

"Hey!" Seán said from the phone, "We're at Ethan's. Mark gave him a panic attack after buying him a new phone."

Her smile faded quickly, turning into a slight frown, " _Please,_ tell me he didn't get on one knee like he said he would."

Mika let out all her emotions, laughing hysterically. This prompted Tyler to do the same, neither of them even trying to hide it anymore.

Seán listened as Amy sighed loudly, "We're starting without you guys. Just... _get here as quickly as you can._ "  
"Okay, see you guys!"

Tyler hung up slowed down his laughing.

Amy scoffed and turned around, walking on-stage, where Kathryn and her set up some desks.

"What's going on with those two?" Her friend asked while sitting down in the middle.  
"Remember the dumb plan Mark had that I told you about?"  
"The cellphone thing?"

Amy sat down next to her, "Yup! That one!"  
"He actually went through with it?"  
"I swear he's not this dumb. It's just... his obsession with making everyone like him."

Kathryn shrugged, "I mean, let him deal with it. He'll learn soon enough."  
"True. Anyway, we have to practice, right?" She felt her back turn less stiff, reliving some of her tension.  
"Yes! Tyler, Mika! Let's practice!" Her friend waved over to the other two students, who were recovering from their laughing fit.

Tyler turned to Mika and mumbled something, but Amy couldn't hear them all the way from her position. After a few seconds, he spun and faced the stage, walking to one of the desks under the spotlight.

The sophomore stepped over to her backpack and looked for one of her notebooks.

"Okay," Kathryn began, looking around, "Mika, did you prepare anything special for us today?"  
"Well, _'special'_ could be a way to call it, but I feel like I should let my work speak for itself."

She opened a blue notebook to a specific page and smiled, reading its content, "You guys ready?"

The three of them took out a notebook and pencil each, which were in a small compartment in the desk. Once they all had a page open, Amy nodded.

"Go on."

Mika smiled taking out a timer and turning it on, "Okay! A triangle with points ABC has a perimeter of 53. If sides AB and AC are equal, and BC is 8 more than AB, what is the length of BC?"

Kathryn immediately started drawing a graphic while Tyler tried to write down some of the data. Amy listened to what they muttered and tried to help them any way she could, quickly realizing they could handle it by themselves. She saw as her friend drew the triangle and jotted down the numbers Tyler gave her. She seemed in her element, immediately creating a formula for it.

In just under a minute, she was done with it, "23!"  
"Correct, now: Tamisha opened a savings account and deposited $950.00 as principal. The account earns..."

Amy wrote down a formula she knew would help, but during that moment, lost track of the question.

Tyler turned to her and spoke quietly, _"Interest is 20%, 2 years, compounded annually."_  
She nodded and began putting the values into the formula, quickly multiplying. She knew that in the competition, she'd have basically no time to do this, so she was trying her hardest.

She looked up, "One thousand, three hundred and sixty-eight dollars!"  
"Exactly! From the top of a fire tower, a forest ranger sees his partner on the ground at an angle of depression of 45º. If the tower is 100 feet in height, how far is the partner from the base of the tower, to the nearest tenth of a foot?"

Amy began sketching the graph while Tyler wrote down a formula, which left Amy in charge of data entry. 

_"Tower is 100 feet,"_ she whispered to her teammates, _"guy is 45º below."_

Kathryn immediately went into overthinking mode, trying to visualize the actual problem. Amy tried her hardest to recall a chart with values of tangent, running through her memories of looking at it.

Then, to both of their surprise, Tyler suddenly spoke up, "100 feet!"

"Precisely! Baking a tray of banana muffins takes 4 cups of milk and 2 cups of wheat flour. A tray of honey muffins takes 2 cups of milk and 3 cups of wheat flour. A baker has..."

Amy's mind drifted away. She knew that Ethan had solved it at one point during their tutoring. To her left, Kathryn and Tyler both began writing down numbers, but she thought back to that moment.

"14 banana and 3 honey!" Amy yelled, not really sure.

Tyler and Kathryn turned to her slowly, both of their eyebrows raised.

"Yup! A dairy farmer with..."

Amy sighed in relief, closing her eyes and letting her brain rest, even for a second.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter is the last other-pov one. From thereafter, expect it to be like before. Some things will happen in the next chapter, but nothing too big. I'll try to get it out before Valentine's Day, but no promises.


End file.
